GIFT  OF 


STORIES  OF  INVENTION 


TOLD    BY  INVENTORS    AND 
THEIR   FRIENDS. 


BY  EDWARD   E.  HALE. 


BOSTON: 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 

1889. 


Copyright,  1SS5, 
BY  ROBERTS  BROTHERS, 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE. 


PREFACE. 


THIS  little  book  closes  a  series  of  five  volumes  which  I 
undertook  some  years  since,  in  the  wish  to  teach  boys 
and  girls"  how  to  use  for  themselves  the  treasures  which 
they  have  close  at  hand  in  the  Public  Libraries  now  so 
generally  opened  in  the  Northern  States  of  America.  The 
librarians  of  these  institutions  are,  without  an  exception, 
so  far  as  I  know,  eager  to  introduce  to  the  young  the 
books  at  their  command.  From  these  gentlemen  and 
ladies  I  have  received  many  suggestions  as  the  series  went 
forward,  and  I  could  name  many  of  them  who  could  have 
edited  or  prepared  such  a  series  far  more  completely 
than  I  have  done.  But  it  is  not  fair  to  expect  them,  in 
the  rush  of  daily  duty,  to  stop  and  tell  boys  or  girls  what 
will  be  "  nice  books "  for  them  to  read.  If  they  issue 
frequent  bulletins  of  information  in  this  direction,  as  is 
done  so  admirably  by  the  librarians  at  Providence  and  at 
Hartford,  they  do  more  than  any  one  has  a  right  to  ask 
them  for.  Such  bulletins  must  be  confined  principally  to 
helping  young  people  read  about  the  current  events  of  the 
day.  In  that  case  it  will  only  be  indirectly  that  they  send 
the  young  readers  back  into  older  literature,  and  make 
them  acquainted  with  the  best  work  of  earlier  times. 


iv  PREFACE. 

I  remember  well  a  legend  of  the  old  Public  Library  at 
Dorchester,  which  describes  the  messages  sent  to  the  hard- 
pressed  librarian  from  the  outlying  parts  of  the  town  on 
the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  which  was  the  only  time  when 
the  Library  was  open. 

"Mother  wants  a  sermon  book  and  another  book." 
This  was  the  call  almost  regularly  made  by  the  mes- 
sengers. 

I  think  that  many  of  the  most  accomplished  librarians 
of  to-day  have  demands  not  very  dissimilar,  and  that  they 
will  be  glad  of  any  assistance  that  will  give  to  either 
mother  or  messenger  any  hint  as  to  what  this  "other 
book  "shall  be. 

It  is  indeed,  of  course,  almost  the  first  thing  to  be 
asked  that  boys  and  girls  shall  learn  to  find  out  for  them- 
selves what  they  want,  and  to  rummage  in  catalogues, 
indexes,  and  encyclopaedias  for  the  books  which  will  best 
answer  their  necessities.  Mr.  Emerson's  rule  is,  "  Read  in 
the  line  of  your  genius."  And  the  young  man  or  maiden 
who  can  find  out,  in  early  life,  what  the  line  of  his  or  her 
genius  is,  has  every  reason  to  be  grateful  to  the  teacher,  or 
the  event,  or  the  book  that  has  discovered  it.  I  have 
certainly  hoped,  in  reading  and  writing  for  tlys  series,  that 
there  might  be  others  of  my  young  friends  as  sensible  and 
as  bright  as  Fergus  and  Fanchon,  who  will  be  found  to 
work  out  their  own  salvation  in  these  matters,  and  order 
their  own  books  without  troubling  too  much  that  nice 
Miss  Panizzi  or  that  omniscient  Mrs.  Bodley  who  manages 
the  Library  so  well,  and  knows  so  well  what  every  one  in 
the  town  has  read,  and  what  he  has  not  read. 


PREFACE.  V 

I  had  at  first  proposed  to  publish  with  each  book  a 
little  bibliography  on  the  subjects  referred  to,  telling  par- 
ticularly where  were  the  available  editions  and  the  prices 
at  which  they  could  be  bought  by  young  collectors.  But 
a  little  experiment  showed  that  no  such  supplement  could 
be  made,  which  should  be  of  real  use  for  most  readers  for 
whom  these  books  are  made.  The  same  list  might  be 
too  full  for  those  who  have  only  small  libraries  at  com- 
mand, and  too  brief  for  those  who  are  fortunate  enough 
to  use  large  ones.  Indeed,  I  should  like  to  say  to  such 
young  readers  of  mine  as  have  the  pluck  and  the  sense  to 
read  a  preface,  that  the  sooner  they  find  out  how  to  use 
the  received  guides  in  such  matters,  —  the  very  indexes 
and  bibliographies  which  I  should  use  in  making  such  a 
list  for  them,  —  why,  the  better  will  it  be  for  them. 

Such  books  as  Poote's  Index,  Watt's  and  Brunet's 
Bibliographies,  and.  the  New  American  Indexes,  prepared 
with  such  care  by  the  Librarians'  Association,  are  at  hand 
in  almost  all  the  Public  Libraries ;  and  the  librarians  will 
always  be  glad  to  encourage  intelligent  readers  in  the  use 
of  them. 

I  should  be  sorry,  in  closing  the  series,  not  to  bear  my 
testimony  to  the  value  of  the  Public  Library  system,  still 
so  new  to  us,  in  raising  the  standard  of  thought  and  edu- 
cation. For  thirty  years  I  have  had  more  or  less  to  do 
with  classes  of  intelligent  young  people  who  have  met  for 
study.  I  can  say,  therefore,  that  the  habit  of  thought 
and  the  habit  of  work  of  such  young  people  now  is  differ- 
ent from  what  it  was  thirty  years  ago.  Of  course  it  ought 
to  be.  You  can  say  to  a  young  learner  now,  "  This  book 


VI  PREFACE. 

says  thus  and  so,  but  you  must  learn  for  yourself  whether 
this  author  is  prejudiced  or  ill-informed,  or  not." 

You  can  send  him  to  the  proper  authorities.  On  al- 
most any  detail  in  general  history,  if  he  live  near  one  of 
the  metropolitan  libraries,  you  can  say  to  him,  "If  you 
choose  to  study  a  fortnight  on  this  thing,  you  will  very 
likely  know  more  about  it  than  does  any  person  in  the 
world."  It  is  encouraging  to  young  people  to  know  that 
they  can  thus  take  literature  and  history  at  first  hand.  It 
pleases  them  to  know  that  "  the  book  "  is  not  absolute. 
With  such  resources  that  has  resulted  which  such  far-seeing 
men  as  Edward  Everett  and  George  Ticknor  and  Charles 
Coffin  Jewett  hoped  for,  —  the  growth,  namely,  of  a  race 
of  students  who  do  not  take  anything  on  trust.  As  Pro- 
fessor Agassiz  was  forever  driving  up  his  pupils  to  habits  of 
original  observation  in  natural  hfstory,  the  Public  Library 
provokes  and  allures  young  students  to  like  courage  in 
original  research  in  matters  of  history  and  literature. 

EDWARD  E.  "HALE. 

ROXBURY,  April  i,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.   INTRODUCTION 9 

II.   ARCHIMEDES 20 

III.  FRIAR  BACON ^     36 

Of  the  Parents  and  Birth  of  Fryer  Bacon,  and 
how  he  addicted  himself  to  Learning,  39.  How 
Fryer  Bacon  made  a  Brazen  Head  to  speak,  by 
the  which  he  would  have  walled  England  about 
with  Brass,  41.  How  Fryer  Bacon  by  his  Art 
took  a  Town,  when  the  King  had  lain  before  it 
three  Months,  without  doing  it  any  Hurt,  45. 
How  Fryer  Bacon  burnt  his  Books  of  Magic 
and  gave  himself  to  the  Study  of  Divinity 
only ;  and  how  he  turned  Anchorite,  49.  How 
Virgilius  was  set  to  School,  53.  Howe  the 
Emperor  asked  Counsel  of  Virgilius,  how  the 
Night  Runners  and  111  Doers  might  be  rid-out 
of  the  Streets,.  55.  How  Virgilius  made  a 
Lamp  that  at  all  Times  burned,  56. 

IV.  BENVENUTO  CELLINI 58 

Life  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  59.  Benvenuto's 
Autobiography,  60. 

V.   BERNARD  PALISSY 82 

Bernard  Palissy  the  Potter,  83. 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

VI.   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 97 

Franklin's  Method  of  Growing  Better,  100. 
Musical  Glasses,  112. 

VII.  THEORISTS  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  .  119 
Richard  Lovell  Edgeworth,  119.  Edgeworth's 
Telegraph,  124.  Mr.  Edgeworth's  Telegraph 
in  Ireland,  127.  Mr.  Edgeworth's  Machine, 
136.  More  of  Mr.  Edgeworth's  Fancies,  140. 
Jack  the  Darter,  142.  A  One-wheeled  Chaise, 
144. 

VIII.  JAMES  WATT 146 

The  Newcomen  Engine,  150.  James  Watt  and 
the  Steam-engine,  153.  The  Separate  Con- 
denser, 161.  Completing  the  Invention,  164. 
Watt  makes  his  Model,  167. 

IX.   ROBERT  FULTON 172 

X.   GEORGE  STEPHENSON  AND  THE  LOCOMOTIVE     193 
George  Stephenson,  194. 

XI.    ELI  WHITNEY 219 

Eli  Whitney,  222. 

XII.  JAMES  NASMYTH 237 

The  Steam-hammer,  237.     James  Nasmyth,  239. 

XIII.  SIR  HENRY  BESSEMER 259 

The  Age  of  Steel,  259.  Bessemer's  Family,  261. 
Henry  Bessemer,  264.  Stamped  Paper,  265. 
Gold  Paint,  270.  Bessemer  Steel,  273. 

XIV.  THE  LAST  MEETING 284 

Goodyear,  284. 


STORIES    OF    INVENTION 

TOLD    BY    INVENTORS. 


I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

'~PHERE  is,  or  is  supposed  to  be,  somewhere  in  J^or- 
•*•  folk  County  in  Massachusetts,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  city  of  Boston,  a  rambling  old  house  which  in  its 
day  belonged  to  the  Oliver  family.  I  am  afraid  they 
were  most  of  them  sad  Tories  in  their  time ;  and  I  am  not 
sure  but  these  very  windows  could  tell  the  story  of  one  or 
another  brick-bat  thrown  through  them,  as  one  or  another 
committee  of  the  people  requested  one  or  another  Oliver, 
of  the  old  times,  to  resign  one  or  another  royal  commis- 
sion. But  a  very  peaceful  Rowland  has  taken  the  place 
of  those  rebellious  old  Olivers. 

This  comfortable  old  house  is  now  known  to  many 
young  people  as  the  home  of  a  somewhat  garrulous  old 
gentleman  whom  they  call  Uncle  Fritz.  His  real  name 
is  Frederick  Ingham.  He  has  had  a  checkered  life, 
but  it  has  evidently  been  a  happy  one.  Once  he  was  in 
the  regular  United  States  Navy.  For  a  long  time  he  was 
a  preacher  in  the  Sandemanian  connection,  where  they 
have  no  ordained  ministers.  In  Garibaldi's  time  he  was  a 


io  ***  STORIES  b'F ''INVENTION. 


colonel  in  "the"  patriot  service  *  in  Italy.  In  our  civil  war 
he  held  a  command  in  the  national  volunteer  navy; 
and  his  scientific  skill  and  passion  for  adventure  called 
him  at  one  time  across  "the  Great  American  Desert," 
and  at  another  time  acress  Siberia,  in  the  business  of  con- 
structing telegraphs.  In  point  of  fact,  he  is  not  the  rela- 
tion of  any  one  of  the  five-and-twenty  young  people  who 
call  him  Uncle  Fritz.  But  he  pets  them,  and  they  pet 
him.  They  like  to  make  him  a  regular  visit  once  a  week, 
as  the  winter  goes  by.  And  the  habit  has  grown  up,  of 
their  reading  with  him,  quite  regularly,  on  some  subject 
selected  at  their  first  meeting  after  they  return  from  the 
country.  Either  at  Lady  Oliver's  house,  as  his  winter 
home  is  called,  or  at  Little  Crastis,  where  he  spends  his 
summers,  those  selections  for  reading  have  been  made, 
which  have  been  published  in  a  form  similar  to  that  of  the 
book  which  the  reader  holds  in  his  hand. 

The  reader  may  or  may  not  have  seen  these  books,  — 
so  much  the  worse  for  him  if  he  have  not,  —  but  that  omis- 
sion of  his  may  be  easily  repaired.  There  are  four  of 
them  :  STORIES  OF  WAR  told  by  Soldiers  ;  STORIES  OF  THE 
SEA  told  by  Sailors ;  STORIES  OF  ADVENTURE  told  by  Ad- 
venturers ;  STORIES  OF  DISCOVERY  told  by  Discoverers. 

Since  the  regular  meetings  began,  of  which  these  books 
are  the  history,  the  circle  of  visitors  has  changed  more  or 
less,  as  most  circles  will,  in  five  years.  Some  of  those 
who  met  are  now  yi  another  world.  Some  of  the  boys 
have  grown  to  be  so  much  like  men,  that  they  are  "  sub- 
duing the  world,"  as  Uncle  Fritz  would  say,  in  their  several 
places,  and  that  they  write  home,  from  other  latitudes  and 
longitudes,  of  the  Discoveries  and  Adventures  in  which 
they  have  themselves  been  leaders.  But  younger  sisters 
and  brothers  take  the  places  of  older  brothers  and  sisters. 


INTRODUCTION.  I  I 

The  club  —  for  it  really  is  one  —  is  popular,  Lady  Oliver's 
house  is  large,  and  Uncle  Fritz  is  hospitable.  He  says 
himself  that  there  is  always  room  for  more ;  and  Ellen 
Flaherty,  or  whoever  else  is  the  reigning  queen  in  the 
kitchen,  never  complains  that  the  demand  is  too  great  for 
her  "waffles." 

Last  fall,  when  the  young  people  made  their  first  ap- 
pearance, the  week  before  Thanksgiving  day,  after  the 
new-comers  had  been  presented  to  Uncle  Fritz,  and  a 
chair  or  two  had  been  brought  in  from  the  dining-room 
to  make  provision  for  the  extra  number  of  guests,  it 
proved  that,  on  the  way  out,  John  Coram,  who  is  Tom 
Coram's  nephew,  had  been  talking  with  Helen,  who  is  one 
of  the  old  Boston  Champernoons,  about  the  change  of 
Boston  since  his  uncle's  early  days. 

"  I  told  her,"  said  he  to  Uncle  Fritz,  "  that  Mr.  Aller- 
ton  was  called  'the  last  of  the  merchants,'  and  he  is  dead 
now." 

"That  was  a  pet  phrase  of  his,"  said  Uncle  Fritz. 
"  He  meant  that  his  house,  with  its  immense  resources, 
simply  bought  and  sold.  He  was  away  for  many  years 
once.  When  he  returned,  he  found  that  the  chief  of  his 
affairs  had  made  an  investment,  from  motives  of  public 
spirit,  in  a  Western  railroad.  '  I  thought  we  were  mer- 
chants,' said  the  fine  old  man,  disapproving.  As  he 
turned  over  page  after  page  of  the  account,  he  found  at 
last  that  the  whole  investment  had  been  lost.  '  I  am 
glad  of  that,'  said  he  ; " '  you  will  remember  now  that  we 
are  merchants.'  " 

"But  surely  my  father  is  a  merchant,"  said  Julius." 
"  He  calls  himself  a  merchant,  he  is  put  down  as  a 
merchant  in  the  Directory,  and  he  buys  and  sells,  if 
that  makes  a  man  a  merchant." 


12  STORIES  OF  INVENTION.    ~ 

"All  that  is  true,"  said  Uncle  Fritz.  "But  your  father 
also  invests  money  in  railroads ;  so  far  he  is  engaged  in 
transportation.  He  is  a  stockholder  and  a  director  in 
the  Hecla  Woollen  Mills  at  Bromwich ;  so  far  he  is-  a 
manufacturer.  He  told  me,  the  other  day,  that  he  had 
been  encouraging  my  little  friend  Griffiths,  who  is  experi- 
menting in  the  conservation  of  electric  power ;  so  far  he. 
is  an  inventor,  or  a  patron  of  inventions. 

"  In  substance,  what  Mr.  Allerton  meant  when  he  said 
1 1  thought  we  were  merchants/  was  this  :  he  meant  that 
that  firm  simply  bought  from  people  who  wished  to  sell, 
and  sold  to  people  who  wished  to  buy. 

"  The  fact,  that  almost  every  man  of  enterprise  in  Mas- 
sachusetts is  now  to  a  certain  extent  a  manufacturer, 
shows  that  a  great  change  has  come  over  people  here 
since  the  beginning  of  this  century." 

"  Those  were  the  days  of  Mr.  Cleveland's  adventures, 
and  Mr.  Forbes's,"  said  Hugh. 

He  alluded  to  the  trade  in  the  Pacific,  in  which  these 
gentlemen  shared,  as  may  be  read  in  STORIES  OF  AD- 
VENTURE. 

Uncle  Fritz  said,  "Yes."  He  said  that  the  patient  love 
of  Great  Britain  for  her  colonies  forbade  us  here  from  mak- 
ing so  much  as  a  hat  or  a  hob-nail  while  we  were  colonies, 
as  it  would  gladly  do  again  now.  He  said  that  the  New 
Englanders  had  a  great  deal  of  adventurous  old  Norse 
blood  in  their  veins,  that  they  had  plenty  of  ship-timber 
and  tar.  If  they  could  not  make  hob-nails  they  could 
make  ships ;  and  they  made  very  good  ships  before  they 
had  been  in  New  England  ten  years. 

Luckily  for  us,  soon  after  the  country  became  a  country, 
near  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  quarrels  of  Europe  were 
such,  that  if  an  English  ship  carried  produce  of  the  West 


INTR  OD  UC  TION.  1 3 

Indies  or  China  to  Europe,  France  seized,  if  she  could, 
ship  and  cargo ;  if  a  French  ship  carried  them,  English 
cruisers  seized  ship  and  cargo,  if  they  could.  So  it  hap- 
pened that  the  American  ships  and  the  American  sailors, 
who  were  not  at  war  with  England  and  were  not  at  war 
with  France,  were  able  to  carry  the  stores  which  were 
wanted  by  all  the  world.  The  wars  of  Napoleon  were 
thus  a  steady  bounty  for  the  benefit  of  the  commerce  of 
America.  When  they  were  well  over,  we  had  become  so 
well  trained  to  commerce  here,  that  we  could  build  the 
best  ships  in  the  world ;  and  we  thought  we  had  the  best 
seamen  in  the  world,  —  certainly  there  were  no  better. 
Under  such  a  stimulus,  and  what  followed  it,  our  com- 
merce, as  measured  by  the  tonnage  of  our  ships,  was  as 
large  as  that  of  any  nation,  and,  if  measured  by  the  miles 
sailed,  was  probably  larger. 

All  this  prosperity  to  merchants  was  broken  up  by  the 
War  of  1812,  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
For  two  years  and  a  half,  then,  our  intercourse  with 
Europe  was  almost  cut  off;  for  the  English  cruisers  now 
captured  our  vessels  whenever  they  could  find  them.  At 
last  we  had  to  make  our  own  hob-nails,  our  guns,  our  can- 
non, our  cotton  cloth,  and  our  woollen  cloth,  if  we  meant 
to  have  any  at  all.  The  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  had 
always  had  the  traditions  of  spinning  and  weaving. 

When  Colonel  Ingham  said  this,  Blanche  nodded  to 
Mary  and  Mary  to  Blanche. 

"  That  means/'  said  the  Colonel,  "  that  you  have  brought 
dear  old  mother  Tucker's  spinning-wheel  downstairs,  and 
have  it  in  the  corner  behind  your  piano,  does  it  not?  " 

Blanche  laughed,  and  said  that  was  just  what  she  meant. 

u  It  does  very  well  in  '  Martha,'  "  said  the  Colonel. 
"  And  can  you  spin,  Blanche  ?  " 


14  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Blanche  rather  surprised  him  by  saying  that  she  could, 
and  the  Colonel  went  on  with  his  lecture.  Fergus,  who 
is  very  proud  of  Blanche,  slipped  out  of  the  room,  but 
was  back  after  a  minute,  and  no  one  missed  him. 

Here  in  Massachusetts  some  of  the  most  skilful  mer- 
chants —  Appletons,  Perkinses,  and  Lawrences  —  joined 
hand  with  brave  inventors  like  Slater  and  Treadwell,  and 
sent  out  to  England  for  skilful  manufacturers  like  Cromp- 
ton  and  Boott ;  thus  there  sprung  up  the  gigantic  system 
of  manufacture,  which  seems  to  you  children  a  thing  of 
course.  Oddly  enough,  the  Southern  States,  which  had 
always  hated  New  England  and  New  England  commerce, 
and  had  done  their  best  to  destroy  it  when  they  had  a 
chance,  were  very  eager  to  secure  a  home-market  for 
Southern  cotton ;  and  thus,  for  many  years  after  the  war, 
they  kept  up  such  high  protective  duties  that  foreign  goods 
were  very  dear  in  America,  and  the  New  England  manu- 
facturers had  all  the  better  prices. 

While  Uncle  Fritz  was  saying  this  in  substance,  Ran- 
som, the  old  servant,  appeared  with  a  spinning-wheel  from 
Colonel  Ingham's  music-room.  The  children  had  had  it 
for  some  charades.  Kate  Fogarty,  the  seamstress  of  the 
Colonel's  household,  followed,  laughing,  with  a  great  hank 
of  flax ;  and  when  the  Colonel  stopped  at  the  interruption, 
Fergus  said,  — 

"  I  thought,  Uncle  Fritz,  they  would  all  like  to  see  how 
well  Blanche  spins ;  so  I  asked  Ransom  to  bring  in  the 
wheel." 

And  Blanche  sat  down  without  any  coaxing,  and  made 
her  wheel  fly  very  prettily,  and  spun  her  linen  thread  as 
well  as  her  great-grandmamma  would  have  done.  Colonel 
Ingham  was  delighted ;  and  so  were  all  the  children,  half 
of  whom  had  never  seen  any  hand-spinning  before.  All  of 


IN  TROD  UC  TION.  I  5 

them  had  seen  cotton  and  wool  spun  in  factories ;  in  fact, 
half  of  them  had  eaten  their  daily  bread  that  day,  from  the 
profit  of  the  factories  that  for  ten  hours  of  every  day  do 
such  spinning. 

"  Now,  you  see,"  said  the  well-pleased  Colonel, 
*'  Blanche  spins  that  flax  exactly  as  her  grandmother 
nine  generations  back  spun  it.  She  spins  it  exactly  as 
Mrs.  Dudley  spun  it  in  the  old  house  where  Dr.  Pater- 
son's  church  stands.  It  is  strange  enough,  but  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
passion  for  invention  among  the  New  Englanders.  Now 
they  are  called  a  most  inventive  people,  and  that  bad 
word  has  been  coined  for  them  and  such  as  they. 

"  But  all  this  is  of  the  last  century.  It  was  as  soon  as 
they  were  thrown  on  their  own  resources  that  they  began 
to  invent.  Eli  Whitney,  a  Worcester  County  boy,  gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1791.  He  went  to  Georgia  at 
once,  to  be  a  tutor  in  a  planter's  family ;  but  before  he 
arrived,  the  planter  had  another  tutor.  This  was  a  for- 
tunate chance  for  the  world ;  for  poor  Whitney,  disap- 
pointed, went  to  spend  the  winter  at  the  house  of  Mrs. 
General  Greene.  One  day,  at  dinner,  some  guests  of  hers 
said  that  cotton  could  never  be  exported  with  profit 
unless  a  machine  could  be  made  to  separate  the  seeds 
from  the  l  wool.'  '  If  you  want  anything  invented,'  said 
Mrs.  Greene,  <  ask  my  young  friend  Mr.  Whitney ;  he 
will  invent  anything  for  you.'  Whitney  had  then  never 
seen  cotton  unmanufactured.  But  he  went  to  work  ;  and 
before  he  was  one  year  out  of*  college,  he  had  invented 
the  cotton-gin,  which  created  an  enormous  product  of 
cotton,  and,  in  fact,  changed  the  direction  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  world. 

"  Well,    you    know   about    other   inventions.     Robert 


1 6  STORIES  OF  INVENTION.. 

Fulton,  who  built  the  first  effective  steamboat,  was 
born  in  Pennsylvania  the  same  year  Whitney  was  born 
in  Massachusetts. 

"  Hector,  you  are  fond  of  imaginary  conversations  : 
write  one  in  which  Whitney  and  Fulton  meet,  when  each 
is  twenty-one ;  let  Daniel  Boone  look  in  on  them,  and 
prophesy  to  them  the  future  of  the  country,  and  how 
much  it  is  to  owe  to  them  and  to  theirs." 

"I  think  Blanche  had  better  write  it — in  a  ballad,"  said 
Hector,  laughing.  "  It  shall  be  an  old  crone  spinning ; 
and  as  she  turns  her  wheel  she  shall  describe  the  ^Etna 
Factory  at  Watertown." 

"  There  shall  be  a  refrain"  said  Wallace,  — 

"  '  Turn  my  wheel  gayly ; 
Spin,  flax,  spin.' " 

"  No,"  said  Hatty  ;  "  the  refrain  shall  be 

'  Four  per  cent  in  six  months, 
Eight  per  cent  in  twelve.' 

We  are  to  go  to  Europe  if  the  Vesuvius  Mills  pay  a 
dividend.  But  if  they  pass,  I  believe  I  am  to  scrub 
floors  in  my  vacation." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  recalling  them  to  the 
subject  they  had  started  on.  "  All  this  is  enough  to  show 
you  how  it  is  that  you,  who  are  all  New  Englanders,  are 
no  longer  seafaring  boys  or  girls,  exclusively  or  even 
principally.  Your  great-grandmother,  Alice,  saved  the 
lives  of  all  the  crew  of  a  Bristol  trader,  by  going  out  in 
her«father's  boat  and  taking  her  through  the  crooked 
passage  between  the  Brewstqrs.  You  would  be  glad  to 
do  it,  but  I  am  afraid  you  cannot." 

"  I  should  rather  encourage  those  who  go  to  do  it," 
said  Alice,  demurely,  repeating  one  of  their  familiar  jokes. 


INTROD  UCTION.  I  / 

"  And  your  great-grandfather,  Seth,  is  the  Hunt  who 
discovered  Hunt's  Reef  in  the  Philippines.  I  am  afraid 
you  cannot  place  it  on  the  map." 

"  I  know  I  cannot,"  said  Seth,  bravely. 

"  No,"  said  the  old  gentleman.  "  But  all  the  same  the 
reef  is  there.  I  came  to  an  anchor  in  the  '  Calypso/  wait- 
ing for  a  southwest  wind,  in  sight  of  the  breakers  over  it. 
And  I  wish  we  had  the  pineapples  the  black  people  sold 
us  there. 

"  All  the  same  the  New  Englanders  are  good  for  some- 
thing. Ten  years  hence,  you  boys  will  be  doing  what  your 
fathers  are  doing,  —  subduing  the  world,  and  making  it 
to  be  more  what  God  wants  it  to  be.  And  you  will  not 
work  at  arms'  length,  as  they  did,  nor  with  your  own 
muscles." 

"  We  have  Aladdin's  lamp,"  said  Mary,  laughing. 

"And  his  ring,"  said  Susie.  "I  always  liked  the  ring 
one  better  than  the  lamp  one,  though  he  was  not  so 
strong." 

"  He  is  prettier  in  the  pictures,"  said  George. 

"Yes,"  said  the  Colonel;  "we  have  stronger  Genii  than 
Aladdin  had,  and  better  machinery  than  Prince  Cama- 
ralzaman." 

"  I  heard  some  one  say  that  Mr.  Corliss  had  added 
twenty-seven  per  cent  to  the  working  power  of  the  world 
by  his  cut-off"  said  Fergus. 

The  Colonel  said  he  believed  that  was  true.  And  this 
was  a  good  illustration  of  what  one  persevering  and  intel- 
ligent man  can  do  in  bringing  in  the  larger  life  and 
nobler  purpose  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Such  a 
man  makes  men  cease  from  labor,  which  is  always  irk- 
some, and  work  with  God.  This  is  always  ennobling. 

"I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  I  do  not  know  what  a 


1 8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

cut-off  is,"  said  Alice,  who,  like  Seth,  had  been  trained  to 
"confess  ignorance." 

"  I  was  going  to  say  so,"  said  John  Rodman. 

"  And  I,  — and  I,  — and  I,"  said  quite  a  little  chorus. 

"We  must  make  up  a  party,  the  first  pleasant  day, 
and  go  and  see  the  stationary  engine  which  pumps  this 
water  for  us."  So  the  Colonel  met  their  confessions. 
"  But  does  not  all  this  indicate  that  we  might  spend  a  few 
days  in  looking  up  inventions  ?  " 

"I  think  we  ought  to,"  said  Hatty.  "Certainly  we 
ought,  if  the  Vesuvius  pays.  Imagine  me  at  Manchester. 
Imagine  John  Bright  taking  me  through  his  own  mill,  and 
saying  to  me, '  This  is  the  rover  we  like  best,  on  the  whole. 
Do  you  use  this  in  America?'  Imagine  me  forced  to 
reply  that  I  do  not  know  a  rover  when  I  see  one,  and 
could  not  tell  a  'slubber'  from  a  'picker.'" 

The  others  laughed,  and  confessed  equal  ignorance. 
"  Only,  John  Bright  has  no  mills  in  Manchester,  Hatty." 

"  Well,  they  are  somewhere ;  and  I  must  not  eat  the 
bread  of  the  Vesuvius  slubbers,  and  not  know  something 
of  the  way  in  which  slubbers  came  to  be." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  as  usual  recalling  the  con- 
versation to  sanity.  "  Whom  shall  we  read  about  first  ?  " 

"Tubal  Cain  first,"  said  Fergus.  "He  seems  to  have 
been  the  first  of  the  crew." 

"  It  was  not  he  who  found  out  witty  inventions,"  said 
Fanchon,  in  a  mock  aside. 

"  I  should  begin  with  Archimedes,"  said  Uncle  Fritz. 

"  Excellent !  "  said  Fergus  ;  "  and  then  may  we  not  burn 
up  old  Fogarty's  barn  with  burning-glasses?  " 

The  children  dislike  Fogarty,  and  his  barn  is  an  eye- 
sore to  them.  It  stands  just  beyond  the  hedge  of  the 
Lady  Oliver  garden. 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

"  I  thank  Archimedes  every  time  I  take  a  warm  bath. 
Did  he  not  invent  hot  baths?  " 

"  What  nonsense  !     He  was  killed  by  Caligula  in  one." 

"You  shall  not  talk  such  stuff.— Uncle  Fritz,  what 
books  shall  I  bring  you?" 

It  would  seem  as  if,  perhaps,  Uncle  Fritz  had  led  the 
conversation  in  the  direction  it  had  taken.  At  least  it 
proved  that,  all  together  on  the  rolling  book-rack  which 
Mr.  Perkins  gave  him,  were  the  account  of  Archimedes  in 
the  Cyclopaedia  Britannica,  fhe  account  in  the  French 
Universal  Biography,  the  life  in  La  Rousse's  Cyclopaedia, 
Plutarch's  Lives,  and  a  volume  of  Livy  in  the  Latin. 
From  these  together,  Uncle  Fritz,  and  the  boys  and  girls 
whom  he  selected,  made  out  this  little  history  of 
Archimedes. 


II. 

ARCHIMEDES. 

A  RCHIMEDES  was  born  in  Syracuse  in  the  year 
^*  287  B.C.,  and  was  killed  there  in  the  year  212  B.  c. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  a  relation  of  Hiero,  King  of 
Syracuse ;  but  he  seems  to  have  held  no  formal  office 
known  to  the  politicians.  Like  many  other  such  men, 
however,  from  his  time  down  to  Ericsson,  he  came  to  the 
front  when  he  was  needed,  and  served  Syracuse  better 
than  her  speech-makers.  While  he  was  yet  a  young  man, 
he  went  to  Alexandria  to  study;  and  he  was  there  the 
pupil  of  Euclid,  the  same  Euclid  whose  Geometry  is  the 
basis  of  all  the  geometry  of  to-day. 

While  Archimedes  is  distinctly  called,  on  very  high 
authority,  "the  first  mathematician  of  antiquity,"  and 
while  we  have  nine  books  which  are  attributed  to  him, 
we  do  not  have  —  and  this  is  a  great  misfortune  —  any 
ancient  biography  of  him.  He  lived  seventy-five  years, 
for  most  of  that  time  probably  in  Syracuse  itself;  and  it 
would  be  hard  to  say  how  much  Syracuse  owed  to  his 
science.  At  the  end  of  his  life  he  saved  Syracuse  from 
the  Romans  for  three  years,  during  a  siege  in  which,  by 
his  ingenuity,  he  kept  back  Marcellus  and  his  army.  At 
the  end  of  this  siege  he  was  killed  by  a  Roman  soldier 
when  the  Romans  entered  the  city. 

The  books  of  his  which  we  have  are  on  the  "  Sphere 
and  Cylinder/'  "The  Measure  of  the  Circle,"  "Conoids 


ARCHIMEDES.  21 

and  Spheroids,"  "On  Spirals,"  "Equiponderants  and  Cen- 
tres of  Gravity,"  "The  Quadrature  of  the  Parabola,"  "On 
Bodies  floating  in  Liquids,"  "  The  Psammites,"  and  "  A 
Collection  of  Lemmas."  The  books  which  are  lost  are 
"On  the  Crown  of  Hiero ;  "  "  Cochleon,  or  Water- 
Screw;  "  "  Helicon,  or  Endless  Screw;  "  "Trispaston,  or 
Combination  of  Wheels  and  Axles  ;  "  "  Machines  em- 
ployed at  the  Siege  of  Syracuse ;  "  "  Burning  Mirror ;  " 
"  Machines  moved  by  Air  and  Water ; "  and  "  Material 
Sphere." 

As  to  the  story  of  the  bath-tub,  Uncle  Fritz  gave  to 
Hector  to  read  the  account  as  abridged  in  the  "  Cyclopae- 
dia Britannica." 

"  Hiero  had  set  him  to  discover  whether  or  not  the  gold 
which  he  had  given  to  an  artist  to  work  into  a  crown  for 
him  had  been  mixed  with  a  baser  metal.  Archimedes  was 
puzzled  by  the  problem,  till  one  day,  as  he  was  stepping 
into  a  bath,  and  observed  the  water  running  over,  it  oc- 
curred to  him  that  the  excess  of  bulk  occasioned  by  the 
introduction  of  alloy  could  be  measured  by  putting  the 
crown  and  an  equal  weight  of  gold  separately  into  a  vessel 
filled  with  water,  and  observing  the  difference  of  overflow. 
He  was  so  overjoyed  when  this  happy  thought  struck  him 
that  he  ran  home  without  his  clothes,  shouting,  '  I  have 
found  it,  I  have  found  it,'  — Evp^/ca,  Ev/a^/ca. 

"  This  word  has  been  chosen  by  the  State  of  California 
for  its  motto." 

To  make  the  story  out,  it  must  be  supposed  that  the 
crown  was  irregular  in  shape,  and  that  the  precise  ob- 
ject was  to  find  how  much  metal,  in  measurement,  was 
used  in  its  manufacture.  Suppose  three  cubic  inches  of 
gold  were  used,  Archimedes  knew  how  much  this  would 
cost.  But  if  three  cubic  inches  of  alloy  were  used,  the 


22  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

king  had  been  cheated.  What  the  overflow  of  the  water 
taught  was  the  precise  cubic  size  of  the  various  ornaments 
of  the  crown.  A  silver  crown  or  a  lead  crown  would  dis- 
place as  much  water  as  a  gold  crown  of  the  same  shape 
and  ornament.  But  neither  silver  nor  lead  would  weigh 
so  much  as  if  pure  gold  were  used,  and  at  that  time 
pure  gold  was  by  far  the  heaviest  metal  known. 

Fergus,  who  is  perhaps  our  best  mathematician,  pricked 
up  his  ears  when  he  heard  there  was  a  treatise  on  the 
relation  of  the  Circle  to  the  Square.  Like  most  of  the 
intelligent  boys  who  will  read  this  book,  Fergus  had  tried 
his  hand  on  the  fascinating  problem  which  deals  with  that 
proportion.  Younger  readers  will  remember  that  it  is 
treated  in  "Swiss  Family."  Jack  —  or  is  it  perhaps  Er- 
nest ?  —  remembers  there,  that  for  the  ribbon  which  was 
to  go  round  a  hat  the  hat-maker  allowed  three  times  the 
diameter  of  the  hat,  and  a  little  more.  This  "little  more  " 
is  the  delicate  fraction  over  which  Archimedes  studied ; 
and  Fergus,  after  him.  Fergus  knew  the  proportion  as 
far  as  thirty-three  figures  in  decimals.  These  are  3.141, 
592>653>589>793>238>462,643,383,2 79,502.  When  Uncle 
Fritz  asked  Fergus  to  repeat  these,  the  boy  did  it  promptly, 
somewhat  to  the  astonishment  of  the  others.  He  had 
committed  it  to  memory  by  one  of  Mr.  Gouraud's  "  anal- 
ogies," which  are  always  convenient  for  persons  who  have 
mathematical  formulas  to  remember. 

When  those  of  the  young  people  who  were  interested  in 
mathematics  looked  at  Archimedes's  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem, they  found  it  was  the  same  as  that  they  had  themselves 
tried  at  school.  But  he  carried  it  so  far  as  to  inscribe  a 
circle  between  two  polygons,  each  of  ninety-six  sides ;  and 
his  calculation  is  based  on  the  relation  between  the  two. 

Taking  the  "Swiss  Family  Robinson"  statement  again, 


SQUARING   THE   CIRCLE.  2$ 

Archimedes  shows  that  the  circumference  of  a  circle  ex- 
ceeds three  times  its  diameter  by  a  small  fraction,  which 
is  less  than  -f  §  and  greater  than  ^r,  and  that  a  circle  is  to 
its  circumscribing  square  nearly  as  n  to  14.  Those  who 
wish  to  carry  his  calculations  farther  may  be  pleased  to 
know  that  he  found  the  figures  7  to  22  expressed  the  re- 
lation more  correctly  than  i  to  3  does.  Metius,  another 
ancient  mathematician,  used  the  proportion  113  to  355. 
If  you  reduce  that  to  decimals,  you  will  find  it  correct  to 
the  sixth  decimal.  Remember  that  Archimedes  and  Me- 
tius had  not  the  convenience  of  the  Arabic  or  decimal  no- 
tation. Imagine  yourselves  doing  Metius's  sum  in  division 
when  you  have  to  divide  CCCLV  by  CXIII.  Archimedes, 
in  fact,  used  the  Greek  notation,  —  which  was  a  little  better 
than  the  Roman,  but  had  none  of  the  facility  of  ours. 
For  every  ten,  from  20  to  90,  they  had  a  separate  charac- 
ter, and  for  every  hundred,  and  for  every  thousand.  The 
thousands  were  the  units  with  a  mark  underneath.  Thus 
a  meant  i,  and  a  meant  1,000.  To  express  113,  Archi- 
medes would  have  written  pty.  To  express  355,  he  would 
have  written  TVC  ;  and  the  place  which  these  signs  had  in 
the  order  would  not  have  affected  their  value,  as  they  do 
with  us. 

We  cannot  tell  how  the  greater  part  of  Archimedes's 
life  was  spent.  But  whether  he  were  nominally  in  public 
office  or  not,  it  is  clear  enough  that  he  must  have  given 
great  help  to  Syracuse  and  her  rulers,  as  an  engineer,  long 
before  the  war  in  which  the  Romans  captured  that  great 
city.  At  that  time  Syracuse  was,  according  to  Cicero, 
"the  largest  and  noblest  of  the  Greek  cities."  It  was  in 
Sicily ;  but,  having  been  built  by  colonists  from  Greece, 
who  still  spoke  the  Greek  language,  Cicero  speaks  of  it 
among  Greek  cities,  as  he  would  have  spoken  of  Thurii, 


24  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

or  Sybaris,  or  the  cities  of  "  Magna  Grsecia,"  —  "  great 
Greece,"  as  they  called  the  Greek  settlements  in  south- 
ern Italy.  In  the  Second  Punic  War  Syracuse  took  sides 
against  Rome  with  the  Carthaginians,  though  her  old 
king,  Hiero,  had  been  a  firm  ally  of  the  Romans.  The 
most  interesting  accounts  that  we  have  of  Archimedes  are 
in  Livy's  account  of  this  war,  and  in  Plutarch's  Life  of 
Marcellus,  who  carried  it  on  on  the  Roman  side.  Livy 
says  of  Archimedes  that  he  was  — 

"  A  man  of  unrivalled  skill  in  observing  the  heavens  and 
the  stars,  but  more  deserving  of  admiration  as  the  inventor 
and  constructor  of  warlike  engines  and  works,  by  means  of 
which,  with  a  very  slight  effort,  he  turned  to  ridicule  what 
the  enemy  effected  with  great  difficulty. 

"  The  wall,  which  ran  along  unequal  eminences,  most  of 
which  were  high  and  difficult  of  access,  some  low  and  open 
to  approach  along  level  vales,  was  furnished  by  him  with 
every  kind  of  warlike  engine,  as  seemed  suitable  to  each 
particular  place.  Marcellus  attacked  from  the  quinque- 
remes  [his  large  ships]  the  wall  of  the  Achradina,  which 
was  washed  by  the  sea.  From  the  other  ships  the  archers 
and  slingers  and  light  infantry,  whose  weapon  is  difficult  to 
be  thrown  back  by  the  unskilful,  allowed  scarce  any  person 
to  remain  upon  the  wall  unwounded.  These  soldiers,  as 
they  required  some  range  in  aiming  their  missiles  upward, 
kept  their  ships  at  a  distance  from  the  wall.  Eight  more 
quinqueremes  joined  together  in  pairs,  the  oars  on  their 
inner  sides  being  removed,  so  that  side  might  be  placed 
to  side,  and  which  thus  formed  ships  [of  double  width], 
and  were  worked  by  the  outer  oars,  carried  turrets  built 
up  in  stories,  and  other  battering- engines. 

"  Against  this  naval  armament  Archimedes  placed,  on 
different  parts  of  the  walls,  engines  of  various  dimensions. 


SIEGE  OF  SYRACUSE.  2$ 

Against  the  ships  which  were  at  a  distance  he  discharged 
stones  of  immense  weight;  those  which  were  nearer  he 
assailed  with  lighter  and  more  numerous  missiles.  Lastly, 
in  order  that  his  own  men  might  heap  their  weapons  upon 
the  enemy  without  receiving  any  wounds  themselves,  he 
perforated  the  wall  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  with  a 
great  number  of  loop-holes,  about  a  cubit  in  diameter, 
through  which  some  with  arrows,  others  with  scorpions  of 
moderate  size,  assailed  the  enemies  without  being  seen. 
He  threw  upon  their  sterns  some  of  the  ships  which  came 
nearer  to  the  walls,  in  order  to  get  inside  the  range  of 
the  engines,  raising  up  their  prows  by  means  of  an  iron 
grapple  attached  to  a  strong  chain,  by  means  of  a  tolleno 
[or  derrick],  which  projected  from  the  wall  and  overhung 
them,  having  a  heavy  counterpoise  of  lead  which  forced 
the  line  to  the  ground.  Then,  the  grapple  being  suddenly 
disengaged,  the  ship,  falling  from  the  wall,  was  by  these 
means,  to  the  utter  consternation  of  the  seamen,  so  dashed 
against  the  water  that  even  if  it  came  back  to  its  true 
position  it  took  in  a  great  quantity  of  water." 

"  Fancy,"  cried  Bedford,  "  one  of  their  double  quinque- 
remes,  when  she  had  run  bravely  in  under  the  shelter  of 
the  wall.  Just  as  the  men  think  they  can  begin  to  work, 
up  goes  the  prow,  and  they  all  are  tumbled  down  into  the 
steerage.  Up  she  goes,  and  fifty  rowers  are  on  each  other 
in  a  pile ;  when  the  old  pile-driver  claw  lets  go  again,  and 
down  she  comes,  splash  into  the  sea.  And  then  Archi- 
medes pokes  his  head  out  through  one  of  the  holes,  and 
says  in  Greek,  '  How  do  you  like  that,  my  friends  ? '  I  do 
not  wonder  they  were  discouraged." 

The  bold  cliff  of  the  water  front  of  Syracuse  gave  Archi- 
medes a  particular  advantage  for  defensive  operations  of 
this  sort.  They  are  described  in  more  detail  in  Plutarch's 


26  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Life  of  Marcellus,  who  was  the  Roman  general  employed 
against  Syracuse,  and  who  was  held  at  bay  by  Archimedes 
for  three  years. 

Here  is  Plutarch's  account :  — 

Marcellus,  with  sixty  galleys,  each  with  five  rows  of 
oars,  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  arms  and  missiles,  and 
a  huge  bridge  of  planks  laid  upon  eight  ships  chained 
together,1  upon  which  was  carried  the  engine  to  cast 
stones  and  darts,  assaulted  the  walls.  He  relied  on  the 
abundance  and  magnificence  of  his  preparations,  and  on 
his  own  previous  glory ;  all  which,  however,  were,  it  would 
seem,  but  trifles  for  Archimedes  and  his  machines. 

These  machines  he  had  designed  and  contrived,  not 
as  matters  of  any  importance,  but  as  mere  amusements 
in  geometry,  —  in  compliance  with  King  Hiero's  desire 
and  request,  some  little  time  before,  that  he  should  re- 
duce to  practice  some  part  of  his  admirable  speculations 
in  science,  and  by  accommodating  the  theoretic  truth  to 
sensation  and  ordinary  use,  bring  it  more  within  the 
appreciation  of  people  in  general.  Eudoxus  and  Archytas 
had  been  the  first  originators  of  this  far-famed  and  highly 
prized  art  of  mechanics,  which  they  employed  as  an 
elegant  illustration  of  geometrical  truths,  and  as  a  means 
of  sustaining  experimentally,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
senses,  conclusions  too  intricate  for  proof  by  words  and 
diagrams.  As,  for  example,  to  solve  the  problem  so 
often  required  in  constructing  geometrical  figures,  "  Given 
the  two  extremes  to  find  the  two  mean  lines  of  a  propor- 
tion," both  these  mathematicians  had  recourse  to  the  aid 
of  instruments,  adapting  to  their  purpose  certain  curves 
and  sections  of  lines.  But  what  with  Plato's  indignation 

1  These  are  the  quinqueremes,  fastened  together,  of  the  other  account 


MECHANIC  ARTS.  2? 

at  it,  and  his  invectives  against  it  as  the  mere  corruption 
and  annihilation  of  the  one  good  of  geometry,  which 
was  thus  shamefully  turning  its  back  upon  the  unem- 
bodied  objects  of  pure  intelligence,  to  recur  to  sensation, 
and  to  ask  help  (not  to  be  obtained  without  base  sub- 
servience and  depravation)  from  matter;  so  it  was  that 
mechanics  came  to  be  separated  from  geometry,  and 
when  repudiated  and  neglected  by  philosophers,  took 
its  place  as  a  military  art. 

Archimedes,  however,  in  writing  to  King  Hiero,  whose 
friend  and  near  relative  he  was,  had  stated  that,  given 
the  force,  any  given  weight  might  be  moved ;  and  even 
boasted,  we  are  told,  relying  on  the  strength  of  demon- 
stration, that  if  there  were  another  earth,  by  going  into 
it  he  could  move  this. 

Hiero  being  struck  with  amazement  at  this,  and  en- 
treating him  to  make  good  this  assertion  by  actual  experi- 
ment, and  show  some  great  weight  moved  by  a  small 
engine,  he  fixed  upon  a  ship  of  burden  out  of  the  king's 
arsenal,  which  could  not  be  drawn  out  of  the  dock  with- 
out great  labor  by  many  men.  Loading  her  with  many 
passengers  and  a  full  freight,  sitting  himself  the  while  far 
off,  with  no  great  endeavor,  but  only  holding  the  head 
of  the  pulley  in  his  hand  and  drawing  the  cord  by  de- 
grees, he  drew  the  ship  in  a  straight  line,  as  smoothly  and 
evenly  as  if  she  had  been  in  the  sea. 

The  king,  astonished  at  this,  and  convinced  of  the 
power  of  the  art,  prevailed  upon  Archimedes  to  make 
him  engines  accommodated  to  all  the  purposes,  offensive 
and  defensive,  of  a  siege.  These  the  king  himself  never 
made  use  of,  because  he  spent  almost  all  his  life  in  a 
profound  quiet  and  the  highest  affluence.  But  the  appa- 
ratus was,  in  a  most  opportune  time,  ready  at  hand  for 
the  Syracusans,  and  with  it  also  the  engineer  himself. 


28  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

When,  therefore,  the  Romans  assaulted  the  walls  in 
two  places  at  once,  fear  and  consternation  stupefied  the 
Syracusans,  believing  that  nothing  was  able  to  resist  that 
violence  and  those  forces.  But  when  Archimedes  began 
to  ply  his  engines,  he  at  once  shot  against  the  land  forces 
all  sorts  of  missile  weapons,  with  immense  masses  of 
stone  that  came  down  with  incredible  noise  and  violence, 
against  which  no  man  could  stand;  for  they  knocked 
down  those  upon  whom  they  fell  in  heaps,  breaking  all 
their  ranks  and  files.  In  the  mean  time  huge  poles  thrust 
out  from  the  walls  over  the  ships  [these  were  the  derricks, 
or  tollenos,  of  Livy]  sunk  some  by  the  great  weights  which 
they  let  down  from  on  high  upon  them ;  others  they 
lifted  up  into  the  air  by  an  iron  hand  or  beak  like  a 
crane's  beak,  and  when  they  had  drawn  them  up  by  the 
prow,  and  set  them  on  end  upon  the  poop,  they  plunged 
them  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Or  else  the  ships,  drawn 
by  engines  within,  and  whirled  about,  were  dashed  against 
the  steep  rocks  that  stood  jutting  out  under  the  walls, 
with  great  destruction  of  the  soldiers  that  were  aboard 
them.  A  ship  was  frequently  lifted  up  to  a  great  height 
in  the  air  (a  dreadful  thing  to  behold),  and  was  rolled 
to  and  fro  and  kept  swinging,  until  the  mariners  were 
all  thrown  out,  when  at  length  it  was  dashed  against  the 
rocks,  or  let  fall. 

At  the  engine  that  Marcellus  brought  upon  the  bridge 
of  ships,  —  which  was  called  Sambuca  from  some  resem- 
blance it  had  to  an  instrument  of  music  of  that  name,  — 
while  it  was  as  yet  approaching  the  wall,  there  was  dis- 
charged a  piece  of  a  rock  of  ten  talents'  weight,1  then 
a  second  and  a  third,  which,  striking  upon  it  with  im- 
mense force  and  with  a  noise  like  thunder,  broke  all  its 

1  The  estimates  of  a  talent  vary  somewhat,  but  ten  talents  made  about 
seven  hundred  pounds. 


ENGINES  OF  DEFENCE.  29 

foundation  to  pieces,  shook  out  all  its  fastenings,  and 
completely  dislodged  it  from  the  bridge.  So  Marcellus, 
doubtful  what  counsel  to  pursue,  drew  off  his  ships  to 
a  safer  distance,  and  sounded  a  retreat  to  his  forces  on 
land.  They  then  took  a  resolution  of  coming  up  under 
the  walls,  if  it  were  possible,  in  the  night ;  thinking  that 
as  Archimedes  used  ropes  stretched  at  length  in  playing 
his  engines,  the  soldiers  would  now  be  under  the  shot,  and 
the  darts  would,  for  want  of  sufficient  distance  to  throw 
them,  fly  over  their  heads  without  effect.  But  he,  it 
appeared,  had  long  before  framed  for  such  occasion 
engines  accommodated  to  any  distance,  and  shorter 
weapons;  and  had  made  numerous  small  openings  in 
the  walls,  through  which,  with  engines  of  a  shorter  range, 
unexpected  blows  were  inflicted  on  the  assailants.  Thus, 
when  they,  who  thought  to  deceive  the  defenders,  came 
close  up  to  the  walls,  instantly  a  shower  of  darts  and 
other  missile  weapons  was  again  cast  upon  them.  And 
when  stones  came  tumbling  down  perpendicularly  upon 
their  heads,  and,  as  it  were,  the  whole  wall  shot  out  arrows 
against  them,  they  retired. 

And  now,  again,  as  they  were  going  off,  arrows  and 
darts  of  a  longer  range  inflicted  a  great  slaughter  among 
them,  and  their  ships  were  driven  one  against  another, 
while  they  themselves  were  not  able  to  retaliate  in  any 
way.  For  Archimedes  had  provided  and  fixed  most  of 
his.  engines  immediately  under  the  wall ;  whence  the 
Romans,  seeing  that  infinite  mischiefs  overwhelmed  them 
from  no  visible  means,  began  to  think  they  were  fighting 
with  the  gods. 

Yet  Marcellus  escaped  unhurt,  and,  deriding  his  own 
artificers  and  engineers,  "  What,"  said  he,  "  must  we  give 
up  fighting  with  this  geometrical  Briareus,  who  plays 


30  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

pitch  and  toss  with  our  ships,  and  with  the  multitude  of 
darts  which  he  showers  at  a  single  moment  upon  us, 
really  outdoes  the  hundred-handed  giants  of  mythology?" 
And  doubtless  the  rest  of  the  Syracusans  were  but  the 
body  of  Archimedes's  designs,  one  soul  moving  and 
governing  all ;  for,  laying  aside  all  other  arms,  with  his 
alone  they  infested  the  Romans  and  protected  them- 
selves. In  fine,  when  such  terror  had  seized  upon  the 
Romans  that  if  they  did  but  see  a  little  rope  or  a  piece 
of  wood  from  the  wall,  instantly  crying  out  that  there  it 
was  again,  that  Archimedes  was  about  to  let  fly  some  en- 
gine at  them,  they  turned  their  backs  and  fled,  Marcellus 
desisted  from  conflicts  and  assaults,  putting  all  his  hope 
in  a  long  siege.  Yet  Archimedes  possessed  so  high  a 
spirit,  so  profound  a  soul,  and  such  treasures  of  scien- 
tific knowledge,  that  though  these  inventions  had  now 
obtained  him  the  renown  of  more  than  human  sagacity, 
he  yet  would  not  deign  to  leave  behind  him  any  com- 
mentary or  writing  on  such  subjects ;  but,  repudiating 
as  sordid  and  ignoble  the  whole  trade  of  engineering, 
and  every  sort  of  art  that  lends  itself  to  mere  use  and 
profit,  he  placed  his  whole  affection  and  ambition  in 
those  purer  speculations  where  there  can  be  no  reference 
to  the  vulgar  needs  of  life,  —  studies  the  superiority  of 
which  to  all  others  is  unquestioned,  and  in  which  the 
only  doubt  can  be  whether  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of 
the  subjects  examined  or  the  precision  and  cogency 
of  the  methods  and  means  of  proof  most  deserve  our 
admiration. 

It  is  not  possible  to  find  in  all  geometry  more  difficult 
and  intricate  questions,  or  more  simple  and  lucid  expla- 
nations. Some  ascribe  this  to  his  natural  genius ;  while 
others  think  that  incredible  toil  produced  these,  to  all 


ARCHIMEDES 'S  LOVE  OF  SCIENCE.  31 

appearance,  easy  and  unlabored  results.  No  amount 
of  investigation  of  yours  would  succeed  in  attaining  the 
proof;  and  yet,  once  seen,  you  immediately  believe  you 
would  have  discovered  it,  —  by  so  smooth  and  so  rapid 
a  path  he  leads  you  to  the  conclusion  required.  And 
thus  it  ceases  to  be  incredible  that  (as  is  commonly  told 
of  him)  the  charm  of  his  familiar  and  domestic  science 
made  him  forget  his  food  and  neglect  his  person  to  that 
degree  that  when  he  was  occasionally  carried  by  absolute 
violence  to  bathe,  or  have  his  body  anointed,  he  used 
to  trace  geometrical  figures  in  the  ashes  of  the  fire,  and 
diagrams  in  the  oil  on  his  body,  being  in  a  state  of  entire 
preoccupation,  and,  in  the  truest  sense,  divine  possession, 
with  his  love  and  delight  in  science.  His  discoveries 
were  numerous  and  admirable;  but  he  is  said  to  have 
requested  his  friends  and  relations  that  when  he  was 
dead  they  would  place  over  his  tomb  a  sphere  contain- 
ing  a  cylinder,  inscribing  it  with  the  ratio  which  the 
containing  solid  bears  to  the  contained. 

The  boys  were  highly  edified  by  this  statement  of  the 
difficulty  which  Archimedes's  friends  found  in  making  him 
take  a  bath,  and  chaffed  Jack,  who  had  asked  if  he  were 
not  the  inventor  of  bath-tubs. 

When  the  reading  from  Plutarch  was  over,  Fergus 
asked  if  that  were  all,  and  was  disappointed  that  there 
was  nothing  about  the  setting  of  ships  on  fire  by  mirrors. 
It  is  one  of  the  old  stories  of  the  siege  of  Syracuse,  that 
he  set  fire  to  the  Roman  ships  by  concentrating  on  them 
the  heat  of'  the  sun  from  a  number  of  mirrors.  But  this 
story  is  not  in  Livy,  nor  is  it  in  Plutarch,  though,  as  has 
been  seen,  they  were  well  disposed  to  tell  what  they  knew 
which  was  marvellous  in  his  achievements.  It  is  told  at 


32  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

length  and  in  detail  by  Zonaras  and  Tzetzes,  two  Greek 
writers  of  the  twelfth  century,  who  must  have  found  it  in 
some  ancient  writers  whose  works  we  do  not  now  have. 

"  Archimedes,"  says  Zonaras, 1  "  having  received  the 
rays  of  the  sun  on  a  mirror,  by  the  thickness  and  polish 
of  which  they  were  reflected  and  united,  kindled  a  flame 
in  the  air,  and  darted  it  with  full  violence  upon  the  ships, 
which  were  anchored  within  a  certain  distance,  in  such 
a  manner  that  they  were  burned  to  ashes." 

The  same  writer  says  that  Proclus,  a  celebrated 
"  mathematician  "  of  Constantinople,  in  the  sixth  century, 
at  the  siege  of  Constantinople  set  fire  to  the  Thracian 
fleet  by  means  of  brass  mirrors.  Tzetzes  is  yet  more 
particular.  He  says  that  when  the  Roman  galleys  were 
within  a  bow-shot  of  the  city  walls,  Archimedes  brought 
together  hexagonal  specula  (mirrors)  with  other  smaller 
ones  of  twenty-four  facets,  and  caused  them  to  be  placed 
each  at  a  proper  distance  ;  that  he  moved  these  by  means 
of  hinges  and  plates  of  metal ;  that  the  hexagon  was  bi- 
sected by  the  meridian  of  summer  and  winter ;  that  it  was 
placed  opposite  the  sun ;  and  that  a  great  fire  was  thus 
kindled,  which  consumed  the  ships. 

Now,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  these  are  the 
accounts  of  writers  who  were  not  so  good  mechanics  as 
Archimedes.  It  should  be  remembered,  also,  that  in 
the  conditions  of  war  then,  the  distance  at  which  ships 
would  be  anchored  in  a  little  harbor  like  that  of  Syracuse 
was  not  great.  By  "bow-shot"  would  be  meant  the 
distance  at  which  a  bow  would  do  serious  damage. 
Doubtful  as  the  story  of  Zonaras  and  Tzetzes  seems,  it 
received  unexpected  confirmation  in  the  year  1 747  from 
a  celebrated  experiment  tried  by  the  naturalist  Buffon. 

1  Quoted  in  Fabricius's  Greek  fragments. 


BUFFON'S  EXPERIMENTS.  33 

After  encountering  many  difficulties,  which  he  had 
foreseen  with  great  acuteness,  and  obviated  with  equal 
ingenuity,  Buffon  at  length  succeeded  in  repeating  Ar- 
chimedes's  performance.  In  the  spring  of  1747  he 
laid  before  the  French  Academy  a  memoir  which,  in  his 
collected  works,  extends  over  upwards  of  eighty  pages. 
In  this  paper  he  described  himself  as  in  possession  of  an 
apparatus  by  means  of  which  he  could  set  fire  to  planks  at 
the  distance  of  200  and  even  210  feet,  and  melt  metals 
and  metallic  minerals  at  distances  varying  from  25  to  40 
feet.  This  apparatus  he  describes  as  composed  of  168 
plain  glasses,  silvered  on  the  back,  each  six  inches  broad 
by  eight  inches  long.  These,  he  says,  were  ranged  in  a 
large  wooden  frame,  at  intervals  not  exceeding  the  third 
of  an  inch,  so  that,  by  means  of  an  adjustment  behind, 
each  should  be  movable  in  all  directions  independent  of 
the  rest ;  the  spaces  between  the  glasses  being  further  of 
use  in  allowing  the  operator  to  see  from  behind  the  point 
on  which  it  behooved  the  various  disks  to  be  converged. 

In  this  last  statement  there  is  a  parallel  with  that  of 
Tzetzes,  who  speaks  of  the  division  of  Archimedes's 
mirrors. 

At  the  present  moment  naturalists  are  paying  great  at- 
tention to  plans  for  the  using  of  the  heat  of  the  sun.  It  is 
said  that  on  any  'county  in  the  United  States,  twenty  by 
thirty  miles  square,  there  is  wasted  as  much  heat  of  the 
sun  as  would  drive,  if  we  knew  how  to  use  it,  all  the 
steam-engines  in  the  world. 

Fergus  asked  Uncle  Fritz  if  he  believed  that  Archime- 
des threw  seven  hundred  pounds  of  stone  from  one  of  his 
machines.  The  largest  modern  guns  throw  shot  of  one 
thousand  pounds,  and  it  is  only  quite  recently  that  any 
such  shot  have  been  used. 


34  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Uncle  Fritz  told  him  that  in  the  museum  at  St.  Ger- 
main-en-Laye  he  would  one  day  see  a  modern  catapult, 
made  by  Colonel  de  Reffye  from  the  design  of  a  Roman 
catapult  on  Trajan's  Column.  This  is  supposed  to  be  of 
the  same  pattern  which  is  called  an  "  Onager "  in  the 
Latin  books.  This  catapult  throws,  when  it  is  tested,  a 
shot  of  twenty-four  pounds,  or  it  throws  a  sheaf  of  short 
arrows.  In  one  catapult  the  power  is  gained  by  twisting 
ox-hide  very  tightly,  and  suddenly  releasing  it.  Another  is 
a  very  stout  bow,  worked  with  a  small  windlass.  Of  course 
this  will  give  a  great  power. 

Seven  hundred  pounds,  however,  seems  beyond  the 
ability  of  any  such  machines  as  this  ;  but  from  his  higher 
walls  Archimedes  could,  of  course,  have  rolled  such  stones 
down  on  the  decks  of  the  ships  below.  And  if  he  were 
throwing  other  stones  or  leaden  balls  to  a  greater  distance 
with  his  Onagers,  it  may  well  be  that  Plutarch  or  Livy  did 
not  take  very  accurate  account  of  the  particular  engine 
which  threw  one  stone  or  another. 

Archimedes  was  killed  by  a  Roman  soldier,  to  the 
great  grief  of  Marcellus,  when  the  Romans  finally  took 
Syracuse.  The  city  fell  through  drunkenness,  which  was, 
and  is,  the  cause  of  more  failure  in  the  world  than 
anything  else  which  can  be  named.  Marcellus,  in  some 
conversations  about  the  exchange  or  redemption  of  a  pris- 
oner, observed  a  tower  somewhat  detached  from  the  wall, 
which  was,  as  he  thought,  carelessly  guarded.  Choosing 
the  night  of  a  feast  of  Diana,  when  the  Syracusans  were 
wholly  given  up  to  wine  and  sport,  he  took  the  tower  by 
surprise,  and  from  the  tower  seized  the  wall  and  made  his 
way  into  the  city.  In  the  sack  of  the  city  by  the  soldiers, 
which  followed,  Archimedes  was  killed.  The  story  is 
told  in  different  ways.  Plutarch  says  that  he  was  working 


ARCHIMEDE&S  DEATH.  35 

out  some  problem  by  a  diagram,  and  never  noticed  the 
incursion  of  the  Romans,  nor  that  the  city  was  taken. 
A  soldier,  unexpectedly  coming  up  to  him  in  this  trans- 
port of  study  and  meditation,  commanded  him  to  follow 
him  to  Marcellus  ;  which  he  declining  to  do  before  he  had 
worked  out  his  problem  to  a  demonstration,  the  soldier, 
enraged,  drew  his  sword,  and  ran  him  through.  "  Others 
write  that  a  Roman  soldier,  running  upon  him  with  a  drawn 
sword,  offered  to  kill  him,  and  that  Archimedes,  looking 
back,  earnestly  besought  him  to  hold  his  hand  a  little 
while,  that  he  might  not  leave  what  he  was  then  at  work 
upon  inconsequent  and  imperfect;  but  the  soldier,  not 
moved  by  his  entreaty,  instantly  killed  him.  Others, 
again,  relate  that  as  Archimedes  was  carrying  to  Marcellus 
mathematical  instruments,  dials,  spheres,  and  angles  by 
which  the  magnitude  of  the  sun  might  be  measured  to 
the  sight,  some  soldiers,  seeing  him,  and  thinking  that  he 
carried  gold  in  a  vessel,  slew  him. 

"  Certain  it  is,  that  his  death  was  very  afflicting  to  Mar- 
cellus, and  that  Marcellus  ever  after  regarded  him  that 
killed  him  as  a  murderer,  and  that  he  sought  for  the 
kindred  of  Archimedes  and  honored  them  with  signal 
honors." 

Archimedes,  as  has  been  said,  had  asked  that  his  mon- 
ument might  be  a  cylinder  bearing  a  sphere,  in  commem- 
oration of  his  discovery  of  the  proportion  between  a 
cylinder  and  a  sphere  of  the  same  diameter.  A  century 
and  a  half  after,  when  Cicero  was  quaestor -of  Sicily,  he 
found  this  monument,  neglected,  forgotten,  and  covered 
with  a  rank  growth  of  thistles  and  other  weeds. 

"  It  was  left,"  he  says,  "  for  one  who  came  from  Arpinas, 
to  show  to  the  men  of  Syracuse  where  their  greatest 
countryman  lay  buried." 


III. 

FRIAR  BACON. 

"  A  LL  the  world  seems  to  have  known  of  Columbus's 
*"*•  discoveries  as  soon  as  he  came  home,  but  all  the 
world  did  not  know  at  once  of  Archimedes's  inventions ; 
indeed,  I  should  think  the  world  did  not  know  now  what 
all  of  them  are." 

Hester  Van  Brunt  was  saying  this  in  the  hall,  as  the 
girls  laid  off  their  waterproofs,  when  they  next  met  the 
Colonel. 

"  I  think  that  may  often  be  said  of  what  we  call  Inven- 
tions and  what  we  call  Discoveries,"  he  said,  "  till  quite 
recent  times.  When  a  man  invented  a  new  process,  it  was 
supposed  that  if  he  could  keep  the  secret,  it  might  be  to 
him  a  very  valuable  secret.  But  when  one  discovered  an 
island  or  a  continent,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  keep  the 
secret.  They  tried  it  sometimes,  as  you  know.  But  there 
must  be  a  whole  ship's  crew  who  know  something  of  the 
new-found  land,  and  from  some  of  them  the  secret  would 
leak  out. 

"  But  there  has  been  many  a  process  in  the  arts  lost, 
because  the  man  who  discovered  the  new  quality  in  nature 
or  invented  the  new  method  in  manufacture  kept  it  secret, 
so  that  he  might  do  better  work  than  his  competitors. 
This  went  so  far  that  boys  were  apprenticed  to  masters 
to  learn  '  the  secrets  of  their  trades.'  " 


ROGER  BACON.  37 

Fergus  said  that  in  old  times  inventors  were  not  always 
treated  very  kindly.  If  people  thought  they  were  sorcerers, 
or  in  league  with  the  Devil,  they  did  not  care  much  for 
the  invention. 

Uncle  Fritz  said  they  would  find  plenty  of  instances  of 
the  persecution  of  inventors,  even  to  quite  a  late  date. 
It  is  impossible,  of  course,  to  say  how  many  good  things 
were  lost  to  the  world  by  the  pig-headedness  which  dis- 
couraged new  inventions.  It  is  marvellous  to  think  what 
progress  single  men  made,  who  had  to  begin  almost  at 
the  beginning,  and  learn  for  themselves  what  every  in- 
telligent boy  or  girl  now  finds  ready  for  him  in  the 
Cyclopaedia.  It  is  very  clear  that  the  same  beginnings 
were  made  again  and  again  by  some  of  the  early  inventors. 
Then,  what  they  learned  had  been  almost  forgotten.  There 
was  no  careful  record  of  their  experiments,  or,  if  any,  it 
was  in  one  manuscript,  and  that  was  not  accessible  to 
people  trying  to  follow  in  their  steps. 

"I  have  laid  out  for  you,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "some  of 
the  early  accounts  of  Friar  Bacon,  —  Roger  Bacon.  He  is 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  early  students  of  what 
we  now  call  natural  philosophy  in  England.  It  was  in  one 
of  the  darkest  centuries  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

"  But  see  what  he  did. 

"  There  are  to  be  found  in  his  writings  new  and  ingeni- 
ous views  of  Optics,  —  as,  on  the  refraction  of  light,  on  the 
apparent  magnitude  of  objects,  on  the  magnified  appear- 
ance of  the  sun  and  moon  when  on  the  horizon.  He 
describes  very  exactly  the  nature  and  effects  of  concave 
and  convex  Tenses,  and  speaks  of  their  application  to  the 
purposes  of  reading  and  of  viewing  distant  objects,  both 
terrestrial  and  celestial ;  and  it  is  easy  to  prove  from  his 
writings  that  he  was  either  the  inventor  or  the  improver  of 


38  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

the  telescope.  He  also  gives  descriptions  of  the  camera 
obscura  and  of  the  burning-glass.  He  made,  too,  several 
chemical  discoveries.  In  one  place  he  speaks  of  an  inex- 
tinguishable fire,  which  was  probably  a  kind  of  phosphorus. 
In  another  he  says  that  an  artificial  fire  could  be  prepared 
with  saltpetre  and  other  ingredients  which  would  burn  at 
the  greatest  distance,  and  by  means  of  which  thunder  and 
lightning  could  be  imitated.  He  says  that  a  portion  of  this 
mixture  of  the  size  of  an  inch,  properly  prepared,  would 
destroy  a  whole  army,  and  even  a  city,  with  a  tremendous 
explosion  accompanied  by  a  brilliant  light.  In  another 
place  he  says  distinctly  that  thunder  and  lightning  could 
be  imitated  by  means  of  saltpetre,  sulphur,  and  charcoal. 
As  these  are  the  ingredients  of  gunpowder,  it  is  clear  that 
he  had  an  adequate  idea  of  its  composition  and  its  power. 
He  was  intimately  acquainted  with  geography  and  as- 
tronomy. He  had  discovered  the  errors  of  the  calendar 
and  their  causes,  and  in  his  proposals  for  correcting  them 
he  approached  very  nearly  to  the  truth.  He  made  a  cor- 
rected calendar,  of  which  there  is  a  copy  in  the  Bodleian 
Library  in  Oxford.  In  moral  philosophy,  also,  Roger 
Bacon  has  laid  down  some  excellent  precepts  for  the 
conduct  of  life.1 

"  Now,  if  you  had  such  a  biography  of  such  a  man  now, 
you  would  know  that  without  much  difficulty  you  could 
find  all  his  more  important  observations  in  print.  So  soon 
as  he  thought  them  important,  he  would  communicate 
them  to  some  society  which  would  gladly  publish  them. 
In  the  first  place,  he  would  be  glad  to  have  the  credit  of 
an  improvement,  an  invention,  or  a  discovery.  If  the  in- 
vention were  likely  to  be  profitable,  the  nation  would  secure 
the  profit  to  him  if  he  fully  revealed  the  process.  They 

1  Encyclopaedia  Americana  :  art.  "  Roger  Bacon." 


BACON'S  LIFE.  39 

would  give  him,  by  a  '  patent,'  the  right  to  the  exclusive 
profit  for  a  series  of  years.  The  nation  thus  puts  an  end 
to  the  old  temptation  to  secrecy,  or  tries  to  do  so. 

"  But  if  you  will  read  some  of  the  queer  passages  from 
the  old  lives  of  Bacon,  you  will  see  how  very  vague  were 
the  notions  which  the  people  of  his  own  time  had  of  what 
he  was  doing." 

Then  Hester  read  some  passages  which  Colonel  Ingham 
had  marked  for  her. 


OF  THE  PARENTS  AND  BIRTH  OF  FRYER  BACON, 
AND  HOW  HE  ADDICTED  HIMSELF  TO  LEARN- 
ING. 

In  most  men's  opinions  he  was  born  in  the  West  part 
of  England  and  was  son  to  a  wealthy  Farmer,  who  put  him 
to  School  to  the  Parson  of  the  Town  where  he  was  born : 
not  with  intent  that  he  should  turn  Fryer  (as  he  did),  but 
to  get  so  much  understanding,  that  he  might  manage  the 
better  that  wealth  he  was  to  leave  him.  But  young  Bacon 
took  his  learning  so  fast,  that  the  Priest  could  not  teach 
him  any  more,  which  made  him  desire  his  Master  that  he 
would  speak  to  his  father  to  put  him  to  Oxford,  that  he 
might  not  lose  that  little  learning  that  he  had  gained : 
his  Master  was  very  willing  so  to  do  :  and  one  day,  meet- 
ing his  father,  told  him,  that  he  had  received  a  great  bless- 
ing of  God,  in  that  he  had 'given  him  so  wise  and  hopeful 
a  Child  as  his  son  Roger  Bacon  was  (for  so  was  he  named) 
and  wished  him  withal  to  doe  his  duty,  and  to  bring  up  so 
his  Chile},  that  he  might  shew  his  thankfulness  to  God, 
which  could  not  better  be  done  than  in  making  him  a 
Scholar ;  for  he  found  by  his  sudden  taking  of  his  learn- 
ing, that  he  was  a  child  likely  to  prove  a  very  great  Clerk  : 


4O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

hereat  old  Bacon  was  not  well  pleased  (for  he  desired  to 
bring  him  up  to  Plough  and  to  the  Cart,  as  he  himself  was 
brought)  yet  he  for  reverence  sake  to  the  Priest,  shewed 
not  his  anger,  but  kindly  thanked  him  for  his  paines  and 
counsel,  yet  desired  him  not  to  speak  any  more  concern- 
ing that  matter,  for  he  knew  best  what  best  pleased  him- 
self, and  that  he  would  do  :  so  broke  they  off  their  talk 
and  parted. 

So  soon  as  the  old  man  came  home,  he  called  to  his 
son  for  his  books,  which  when  he  had,  he  locked  them  up, 
and  gave  the  Boy  a  Cart  Whip  in  place  of  them,  saying  to 
him  :  "  Boy,  I  will  have  you  no  Priest,  you  shall  not  be 
better  learned  than  I,  you  can  tell  by  the  Almanack  when 
it  is  best  sowing  Wheat,  when  Barley,  Peas  and  Beans : 
and  when  the  best  libbing  is,  when  to  sell  Grain  and  Cat- 
tle I  will  teach  thee ;  for  I  have  all  Fairs  and  Markets  as 
perfect  in  my  memory,  as  Sir  John,  our  Priest,  has  Mass 
without  Book :  take  me  this  Whip,  I  will  teach  the  use 
of  it.  It  will  be  more  profitable  to  thee  than  this  harsh 
Latin :  make  no  reply,  but  follow  my  counsel,  or  else  by 
the  Mass  thou  shalt  feel  the  smart  hand  of  my  anger." 
Young  Bacon  thought  this  but  hard  dealing,  yet  he  would 
not  reply,  but  within  six  or  eight  days  he  gave  his  Father 
the  slip,  and  went  to  a  Cloister  some  twenty  miles  off, 
where  he  was  entertained,  and  so  continued  his  Learning, 
and  in  small  time  came  to  be  so  famous,  that  he  was  sent 
for  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  he  long  time 
studied,  and  grew  so  excellent  in  the  secrets  of  Art  and 
Nature,  that  not  England  only,  but  all  Christendom,  ad- 
mired him. 


THE  BRAZEN  HEAD.  41 


HOW  FRYER  BACON  MADE  A  BRAZEN  HEAD  TO 
SPEAK,  BY  THE  WHICH  HE  WOULD  HAVE 
WALLED  ENGLAND  ABOUT  WITH  BRASS. 

Fryer  Bacon,  reading  one  day  of  the  many  conquests 
of  England,  bethought  himself  how  he  might  keep  it  here- 
after from  the  like  conquests,  and  so  make  himself  famous 
hereafter  to  all  posterity.  This  (after  great  study)  he 
found  could  be  no  way  so  well  done  as  one ;  which  was 
to  make  a  head  of  Brass,  and  if  he  coflM  make  this  head 
to  speak  (and  hear  it  when  it  speaks)  then  might  he  be 
able  to  wall  all  England  about  with  Brass.  To  this  pur- 
pose he  got  one  Fryer  Bungy  to  assist  him,  who  was  a 
great  Scholar  and  a  Magician,  .(but  not  to  be  compared  to 
Fryer  Bacon),  these  two  with  great  study  and  pains  so 
framed  a  head  of  Brass,  that  in  the  inward  parts  thereof 
there  was  all  things  like  as  in  a  natural  man's  head  :  this 
being  done,  they  were  as  far  from  perfection  of  the  work 
as  they  were  before,  for  they  knew  not  how  to  give  those 
parts  that  they  had  made  motion,  without  which  it  was 
impossible  that  it  should  speak :  many  books  they  read, 
but  yet  could  not  find  out  any  hope  of  what  they  sought, 
that  at  the  last  they  concluded  to  raise  a  spirit,  and  to 
know  of  him  that  which  they  could  not  attain  to  by  their 
own  studies.  To  do  this  they  prepared  all  things  ready 
and  went  one  Evening  to  a  wood  thereby,  and  after  many 
ceremonies  used,  they  spake  the  words  of  conjuration, 
which  the  Devil  straight  obeyed  and  appeared  unto  them, 
asking  what  tney  would?  "Know,"  said  Fryer  Bacon, 
"  that  we  have  made  an  artificial  head  of  Brass,  which  we 
would  have  to  speak,  to  the  furtherance  of  which  we  have 
raised  thee,  and  being  raised,  we  will  keep  thee  here,  un- 


42  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

less  thou  tell  to  us  the  way  and  manner  how  to  make  this 
Head  to  speak."  The  Devil  told  him  that  he  had  not  that 
power  of  himself:  "  Beginner  of  lies,"  said  Fryer  Bacon, 
"  I  know  that  thou  wouldst  dissemble,  and  therefore  tell  it 
us  quickly,  or  else  we  will  here  bind  thee  to  remain  dur- 
ing our  pleasures."  At  these  threatenings  the  Devil  con- 
sented to  do  it,  and  told  them,  that  with  a  continual  fume 
of  the  six  hottest  simples  it  should  have  motion,  and  in 
one  month  space  speak,  the  Time  of  the  month  or  day  he 
knew  not :  also  he  told  them,  that  if  they  heard  it  not  be- 
fore it  had  doneiSpeaking,  all  their  labour  should  be  lost : 
they  being  satisfied,  licensed  the  Spirit  for  to  depart. 

Then  went  these  two  learned  Fryers  home  again,  and 
prepared  the  Simples  ready,  and  made  the  fume,  and 
with  continual  watching  attended  when  this  Brazen-head 
would  speak  :  thus  watched  they  for  three  weeks  without 
any  rest,  so  that  they  were  so  weary  and  sleepy,  that  they 
could  not  any  longer  refrain  from  rest :  then  called  Fryer 
Bacon  his  man  Miles,  and  told  him,  that  it  was  not  un- 
known to  him  what  pains  Fryer  Bungy  and  himself  had 
taken  for  three  weeks  space,  only  to  make,  and  to  hear 
the  Brazen-head  speak,  which  if  they  did  not,  then  had 
they  lost  all  their  labour,  and  all  England  had  a  great  loss 
thereby  :  therefore  he  entreated  Miles  that  he  would  watch 
whilst  that  they  slept,  and  call  them  if  the  Head  speake. 
"  Fear  not,  good  Master,"  said  Miles,  "  I  will  not  sleep, 
but  hearken  and  attend  upon  the  head,  and  if  it  do 
chance  to  speak,  I  will  call  you  :  therefore  I  pray  take  you 
both  your  rests  and  let  me  alone  for  watching  this  head." 
After  Fryer  Bacon  had  given  him  a  great  charge  the  sec- 
ond time,  Fryer  Bungy  and  he  went  to  sleep,  and  Miles, 
alone  to  watch  the  Brazen-head.  Miles  to  keep  himself 
from  sleeping,  got  a  Tabor  and  Pipe,  and  being  merry 


MILES  IS  SCORNFUL.  43 

disposed  sang  him  many  a  merry  Song ;  and  thus  with  his 
own  Music  and  his  Songs  spent  he  his  time,  and  kept  from 
sleeping  at  last.  After  some  noise  the  Head  spake  these 
two  words  :  "  Time  is"  Miles  hearing  it  to  speak  no 
more,  thought  his  Master  would  be  angry  if  he  waked  him 
for  that,  and  therefore  he  let  them  both  sleep,  and  began 
to  mock  the  Head  in  this  manner  :  "  Thou  Brazen-faced 
Head,  hath  my  Master  took  all  this  pains  about  thee,  and 
now  dost  thou  requite  him  with  two  words,  Time  is  ?  had 
he  watched  with  a  Lawyer  so  long  as  he  hath  watched 
with  thee,  he  would  have  given  him  more,  and  better 
words  than  thou  hast  yet.  If  thou  canst  speak  no  wiser, 
they  shall  sleep  till  doom's  day  for  me.  Time  is :  I  know 
Time  is,  and  that  thou  shall  hear,  good  man  Brazen  face." 
And  with  this  he  sang  him  a  song  to  his  own  music  as  to 
times  and  seasons,  and  went  on,  "  Do  you  tell  us,  Copper- 
nose,  when  Time  is?  I  hope  we  Scholars  know  our 
Times,  when  to  drink  drunk,  when  to  kiss  our  hostess, 
when  to  go  on  her  score,  and  when  to  pay  it,  that 
time  comes  seldom."  After  half  an  hour  had  passed,  the 
Head  did  speak  again,  two  words,  which  were  these  : 
"  Time  was."  Miles  respected  these  words  as  little  as  he 
did  the  former,  and  would  not  wake  them,  but  still  scoffed 
at  the  Brazen  head,  that  it  had  learned  no  better  words, 
and  have  such  a  Tutor  as  his  Master  :  and  in  scorn  of  it 
sung  a  Song  to  the  tune  of  "  A  Rich  Merchant  man,"  be- 
ginning as  follows : 

Time  was  when  thou  a  kettle 

Wert  filled  with  better  matter : 
»      But  Fryer  Bacon  did  thee  spoil, 
When  he  thy  sides  did  batter, 

with  more  to  the  same  purpose.  "  Time  was"  said  he, 
"  I  know  that,  Brazen  face,  without  your  telling,  I  know 


44  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Time  was,  and  I  know  what  things  there  was  when 
Time  was,  and  if  you  speak  no  wiser,  no  Master  shall  be 
waked  for  me."  Thus  Miles  talked  and  sung  till  another 
half  hour  was  gone,  then  the  Brazen  head  spake  again 
these  words,  "  Time  is  past:  "  and  therewith  fell  down,  and 
presently  followed  a  terrible  noise,  with  strange  flashes  of 
fire,  so  that  Miles  was  half  dead  with  fear.  At  this  noise 
the  two  Fryers  awaked,  and  wondered  to  see  the  whole 
room  so  full  of  smoke,  but  that  being  vanished  they  might 
perceive  the  Brazen  head  broken  and  lying  on  the  ground  : 
at  this  sight  they  grieved,  and  called  Miles  to  know  how 
this  came.  Miles  half  dead  with  fear,  said  that  it  fell 
down  of  itself,  and  that  with  the  noise  and  fire  that  fol- 
lowed he  was  almost  frighted  out  of  his  wits  :  Fryer  Bacon 
asked  him  if  he  did  not  speak?  "Yes,"  quoth  Milts, 
"  it  spake,  but  to  no  purpose.  I  '11  have  a  Parrot  speak 
better  in  that  time  than  you  have  been  teaching  this 
Brazen  head."  "  Out  on  thee,  villain,"  said  Fryer  Bacon, 
"  thou  hast  undone  us  both,  hadst  thou  but  called  us  when 
it  did  speak,  all  England  had  been  walled  round  about  with 
Brass,  to  its  glory,  and  our  eternal  fames  :  what  were  the 
words  it  spake?"  "Very  few,"  said  Miles,  "and  those 
none  of  the  wisest  that  I  have  heard  neither :  first  he 
said,  '  Time  is: "  "  Hadst  thou  called  us  then,"  said 
Fryer  Bacon,  "we  had  been  made  for  ever.*'  "Then," 
said  Miles,  "  half  an  hour  after  it  spake  again  and  said 
1  Time  was?"  "And  wouldst  thou  not  call  us  then?" 
said  Bungy.  "  Alas  !  "  said  Miles,  "  I  thought  he  would 
have  told  me  some  long  Tale,  and  then  I  purposed  to 
have  called  you  :  then  half  an  hour  after,  he  cried  '  Time 
is  past]  and  made  such  a  noise,  that  he  hath  waked  you 
himself,  methinks."  At  this  Fryer  Bacon  was  in  such  a 
rage,  that  he  would  have  beaten  his  man,  but  he  was  re- 


CAPTURE  OF  A    TOWN.  45 

s 

strained  by  Bungy :  but  nevertheless  for  his  punishment, 
he  with  his  Art  struck  him  dumb  for  one  whole  month's 
space.  Thus  that  great  work  of  these  learned  Fryers  was 
overthrown  (to  their  great  griefs)  by  this  simple  fellow. 

HOW  FRYER  BACON  BY  HIS  ART  TOOK  A  TOWN, 
WHEN  THE  KING  HAD  LAIN  BEFORE  IT  THREE 
MONTHS,  WITHOUT  DOING  IT  ANY  HURT. 

In  those  times  when  Fryer  Bacon  did  all  his  strange 
tricks,  the  Kings  of  England  had  a  great  part  of  France 
which  they  held  a  long  time,  till  civil  wars  at  home  in  this 
Land  made  them  to  lose  it.  It  did  chance  that  the  King 
of  England  (for  some  cause  best  known  to  himself)  went 
into  France  with  a  great  Army,  where  after  many  victo- 
ries, he  did  besiege  a  strong  Town,  and  lay  before  it  full 
three  months,  without  doing  to  the  Town  any  great  dam- 
age, but  rather  received  the  hurt  himself.  This  did  so 
vex  the  King,  that  he  sought  to  take  it  in  any  way,  either 
by  policy  or  strength  :  to  this  intent  he  made  Proclama- 
tion, that  whosoever  could  deliver  this  Town  into  his 
hand,  he  should  have  for  his  pains  ten  ^thousand  Crowns 
truly  paid.  This  was  proclaimed,  but  there  was  none 
found  that  would  undertake  it :  at  length  the  news  did 
come  into  England  of  this  great  reward  that  was  prom- 
ised. Fryer  Bacon  hearing  of  it,  went  into  France,  and 
being  admitted  to  the  King's  presence,  he  thus  spake 
unto  him :  "  Your  Majesty  I  am  sure  hath  not  forgot 
your  poor  servant  Bacon,  the  love  that  you  showed  to  me 
being  last-in  your  presence,  hath  drawn  me  for  to  leave 
my  Country  and  my  Studies,  to  do  your  Majesty  service  : 
I  beseech  your  Grace,  to  command  me  so  far  as  my  poor 
Art  or  life  may  do  you  pleasure."  The  King  thanked 


46  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

him  for  his  love,  but  told  him  that  he  had  now  more  need 
of  Arms  than  Art,  and  wanted  brave  Soldiers  rather  than 
learned  Scholars.  Fryer  Bacon  answered,  "Your  Grace 
saith  well ;  but  let  me  (under  correction)  tell  you,  that 
Art  oftentimes  doth  these  things  that  are  impossible  to 
Arms,  which  I  will  make  good  in  few  examples.  I  will 
speak  only  of  things  performed  by  Art  and  Nature,  wherein 
there  shall  be  nothing  Magical :  and  first  by  the  figuration 
of  Art,  there  may  be  made  Instruments  of  Navigation 
without  men  to  row  in  them,  as  great  ships,  to  brook  the 
Sea,  only  with  one  man  to  steer  them,  and  they  shall  sail 
far  more  swiftly  than  if  they  were  full  of  men  :  Also  Char- 
iots that  shall  move  with  an  unspeakable  force,  without 
any  living  creature  to  stir  them.  Likewise,  an  Instrument 
may  be  made  to  fly  withal,  if  one  sit  in  the  midst  of  the 
Instrument,  and  do  turn  an  engine,  by  which  the  wings 
being  Artificially  composed,  may  beat  air  after  the  man- 
ner of  a  flying  Bird.  By  an  Instrument  of  three  fingers 
high,  and  three  fingers  broad,  a  man  may  rid  himself 
and  others  from  all  Imprisonment :  yea,  such  an  Instru- 
ment may  easily  be  made,  whereby  a  man  may  violently 
draw  unto  him  a  thousand  men,  will  they,  nill  they,  or  any 
other  thing.  By  Art  also  an  Instrument  may  be  made, 
wherewith  men  may  walk  in  the  bottom  of  the  Sea  or 
Rivers  without  bodily  danger :  this  Alexander  the  Great 
used  (as  the  Ethnic  philosopher  reporteth)  to  the  end  he 
might  behold  the  Secrets  of  the  Seas.  But  Physical  Fig- 
urations are  far  more  strange  :  for  by  that  may  be  framed 
Perspects  and  Looking-glasses,  that  one  thing  shall  appear 
to  be  many,  as  one  man  shall  appear  to  be  a  whole  Army, 
and  one  Sun  or  Moon  shall  seem  divers.  Also  perspects 
may  be  so  framed,  that  things  far  off  shall  seem  most  nigh 
unto  us :  with  one  of  these  did  Julius  Ccesar  from  the 


ROGER  BACON'S  SPEECH.  47 

Sea  coasts  in  France  marke  and  observe  the  situation  of 
the  Castles  in  England.  Bodies  may  also  be  so  framed, 
that  the  greatest  things  shall  appear  to  be  the  least,  the 
highest  lowest,  the  most  secret  to  be  the  most  manifest, 
and  in  such  like  sort  the  contrary.  Thus  did  Socrates 
perceive,  that  the  Dragon  which  did  destroy  the  City  and 
Country  adjoining  with  his  noisome  breath,  and  conta- 
gious influence,  did  lurk  in  the  dens  between  the  Moun- 
tains :  and  thus  may  all  things  that  are  done  in  Cities  or 
Armies  be  discovered  by  the  enemies.  Again,  in  such 
wise  may  bodies  be  framed,  that  venemous  and  infectious 
influences  may  be  brought  whither  a  man  will :  In  this 
did  Aristotle  instruct  Alexander ;  through  which  instruction 
the  poyson  of  a  Basiliske,  being  lifted  up  upon  the  wall  of 
a  City,  the  poyson  was  conveyed  into  the  City,  to  the  de- 
struction thereof:  Also  perspects  may  be  made  to  de- 
ceive the  sight,  as  to  make  a  man  believe  that  he  seeth 
great  store  of  riches  when  there  is  not  any.  But  it  apper- 
taineth  to  a  higher  power  of  Figuration,  that  beams  should 
be  brought  and  assembled  by  divers  flections  and  reflec- 
tions in  any  distance  that  we  will,  to  burne  anything  that 
is  opposite  unto  it,  as  is  witnessed  by  those  Perspects  or 
Glasses  that  burn  before  and  behind.  But  the  greatest 
and  chiefest  of  all  figurations  and  things  figured,  is  to  de- 
scribe the  heavenly  bodies,  according  to  their  length  and 
breadth  in  a  corporal  figure,  wherein  they  may  corporally 
move  with  a  daily  motion.  These  things  are  worth  a 
kingdom  to  a  wise  man.  These  may  suffise,  my  royal 
Lord,  to  shew  what  Art  can  do :  and  these,  with  many 
things  more,  as  strange,  I  am  able  by  Art  to  perform. 
Then  take  no  thought  for  winning  this  Town,  for  by  my 
Art  you  shall  (ere  many  days  be  past)  have  your  desire." 
The  King  all  this  while  heard  him  with  admiration  :  but 


48  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

hearing  him  now,  that  he  would  undertake  to  win  the 
Town,  he  burst  out  in  these  speeches :  "  Most  learned 
Bacon,  do  but  what  thou  hast  said,  and  I  will  give  thee 
what  thou  most  desirest,  either  wealth  or  honour,  choose 
what  thou  wilt,  and  I  will  be  as  ready  to  perform,  as  I 
have  been  to  promise." 

"  Your  Majesty's  love  is  all  that  I  seek,"  said  the  Fryer, 
"  let  me  have  that,  and  I  have  honour  enough,  for  wealth, 
I  have  content,  the  wise  should  seek  no  more  :  but  to  the 
purpose.  Let  your  Pioneers  raise  up  a  mount  so  high,  (or 
rather  higher),  than  the  wall,  and  then  you  shall  see  some 
probability  of  that  which  I  have  promised." 

This  Mount  in  two  days  was  raised :  then  Frier  Bacon 
went  with  the  King  to  the  Top  of  it,  and  did  with  a  per- 
spect  shew  to  him  the  Town,  as  plainly  as  if  he  had  been 
in  it :  at  this  the  King  did  wonder,  but  Fryer  Bacon  told 
him,  that  he  should  wonder  more,  ere  next  day  noon : 
against  which  Time,  he  desired  him  to  have  his  whole 
Army  in  readiness,  for  to  scale  the  wall  upon  a  signal  given 
by  him,  from  the  Mount.  This  the  King  promised  to  do, 
and  so  returned  to  his  Tent  full  of  Joy,  that  he  should  gain 
this  strong  Town.  In  the  morning  Fryer  Bacon  went  up 
to  the  Mount  and  set  his  Glasses,  and  other  Instruments 
up :  in  the  meantime  the  King  ordered  his  Army,  and 
stood  in  a  readiness  for  to  give  the  assaults  :  when  the  sig- 
nal was  given  which  was  the  waving  of  a  flag.  Ere  nine 
of  the  clock  Fryer  Bacon  had  burnt  the  State-house  of  the 
Town,  with  other  houses  only  by  his  Mathematical  Glasses, 
which  made  the  whole  Town  in  an  uproar,  for  none  did 
know  how  it  came  :  whilst  that  they  were  quenching  of  the 
same,  Fryer  Bacon  did  wave  his  flag :  upon  which  signal 
given,  the  King  set  upon  the  Town,  and  took  it  with  little 
or  no  resistance.  Thus  through  the  Art  of  this  learned 


BACON'S  FAREWELL    TO  MAGIC.  49 

man  the  King  got  this  strong  Town,  which  he  could  not 
do  with  all  his  men  without  Fryer  Bacon's  help. 


HOW  FRYER  BACON  BURNT  HIS  BOOKS  OF  MAGIC 
AND  GAVE  HIMSELF  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  DIVIN- 
ITY ONLY ;  AND  HOW  HE  TURNED  ANCHORITE. 

Now  in  a  time  when  Fryer  Bacon  kept  his  Chamber 
(having  some  great  grief)  he  fell  into  divers  meditations : 
sometimes  into  the  vanity  of  Arts  and  Sciences  :  then 
would  he  condemn  himself  for  studying  of  those  things 
that  were  so  contrary  to  his  Order  and  Soul's  health ;  and 
would  say  that  Magic  made  a  Man  a  Devil;  sometimes 
would  he  meditate  on  Divinity ;  then  would  he  cry  out 
upon  himself  for  neglecting  the  study  of  it,  and  for  study- 
ing Magic  :  sometime  would  he  meditate  on  the  shortness 
of  man's  life,  then  would  he  condemn  himself  for  spending 
a  time  so  short,  so  ill  as  he  had  done  his  :  so  would  he  go 
from  one  thing  to  another  and  in  all  condemn  his  former 
studies. 

And  that  the  world  should  know  how  truly  he  did  repent 
his  wicked  life,  he  caused  to  be  made  a  great  fire ;  and 
sending  for  many  of  his  Friends,  Scholars,  and  others,  he 
spake  to  them  after  this  manner  :  "  My  good  Friends  and 
fellow  Students,  it  is  not  unknown  unto  you,  how  that 
through  my  Art  I  have  attained  to  that  credit,  that  few 
men  living  ever  had.  Of  the  wonders  that  I  have  done, 
all  England  can  speak,  both  King  and  Commons  :  I  have 
unlocked  the  secret  of  Art  and  Nature,  and  let  the  world 
see  those  things,  that  have  layen  hid  since  the  death  of 
Hermes,  that  rare  and  profound  Philosopher  :  My  Studies 
have  found  the  secrets  of  the  Stars  ;  the  Books  that  I  have 
made  of  them,  do  serve  for  Precedents  to  our  greatest 

A 


5O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Doctors,  so  excellent  hath  my  Judgement  been  therein. 
I  likewise  have  found  out  the  secrets  of  Trees,  Plants  and 
Stones,  with  their  several  uses ;  yet  all  this  knowledge  of 
mine  I  esteem  so  lightly,  that  I  wish  that  I  were  ignorant, 
and  knew  nothing  :  for  the  knowledge  of  these  things,  (as 
I  have  truly  found)  serveth  not  to  better  a  man  in  good- 
ness, but  only  to  make  him  proud  and  think  too  well  of 
himself.  What  hath  all  my  knowledge  of  nature's  secrets 
gained  me  ?  Only  this,  the  loss  of  a  better  knowledge,  the 
loss  of  divine  Studies,  which  makes  the  immortal  part  of 
man  (his  Soul)  blessed.  I  have  found,  that  my  knowledge 
has  been  a  heavy  burden,  and  has  kept  down  my  good 
thoughts :  but  I  will  remove  the  cause  which  are  these 
Books  :  which  I  do  purpose  here  before  you  all  to  burn." 
They  all  intreated  him  to  spare  the  Books,  because  in  them 
there  were  those  things  that  after-ages  might  receive  great 
benefit  by.  He  would  not  hearken  unto  them  but  threw 
them  all  into  the  fire,  and  in  that  flame  burnt  the  greatest 
learning  in  the  world.  Then  did  he  dispose  of  all  his 
goods ;  some  part  he  gave  to  poor  Scholars,  and  some  he 
gave  to  other  poor  folks  :  nothing  he  left  for  himself :  then 
caused  he  to  be  made  in  the  Church-wall  a  Cell,  where  he 
locked  himself  in,  and  there  remained  till  his  death.  His 
time  he  spent  in  Prayer,  Meditation  and  such  Divine  Ex- 
ercises, and  did  seek  by  all  means  to  persuade  men  from 
the  study  of  Magic.  Thus  lived  he  some  two  years  space 
in  that  Cell,  never  coming  forth :  his  meat  and  drink  he 
received  in  at  a  window,  and  at  that  window  he  did  dis- 
course with  those  that  came  to  him ;  His  grave  he  digged 
with  his  own  nails,  and  was  laid  there  when  he  dyed. 
Thus  was  the  Life  and  Death  of  this  famous  Fryer,  who 
lived  the  most  part  of  his  life  a  Magician,  and  died  a  true 
penitent  sinner  and  an  Anchorite. 


MODERN  MARVELS.  5  I 

When  Hester  had  finished  reading,  one  of  the  boys 
said  that  if  people  believed  such  things  as  that,  he  thought 
the  wonder  was  that  they  made  any  progress  at  all.  Uncle 
Fritz  said  that  in  matters  which  make  up  what  we  call 
science,  they  did  not  make  much  progress.  The  arts  of 
the  world  do  not  seem  to  have  advanced  much  between 
the  days  of  Solomon  and  those  of  William  the  Conqueror. 

"  As  you  see,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "  an  inventor  was  set 
down  as  a  magician.  I  think  you  can  remember  more 
instances." 

Yes.  Almost  all  the  young  people  remember  that  in 
Marco  Polo's  day  there  was  a  distinguished  Venetian  en- 
gineer with  the  armies  of  Genghis  Khan,  whose  wonderful 
successes  gave  rise,  perhaps,  to  the  story  of  Aladdin.1 
The  scene  of  his  successes  was  Pekin  •  and  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  the  story  of  Aladdin  is  not  properly  one  of 
the  Arabian  Nights,  and  that  the  scene  is  laid  in  China. 

This  led  them  to  trying  to  match  the  wonders  of  Alad- 
din and  of  the  Arabian  Nights  by  the  wonders  of  modern 
invention;  and  they  pleased  themselves  by  thinking  of 
marvels  they  could  show  to  unlearned  nations  if  they  had 
the  resources  of  Mr.  Edison's  laboratory. 

"Aladdin  rubbed  his  lamp,"  said  Blanche.  "You  see, 
the  lamp  was  his  electrical  machine  ;  and  when  he  rubbed 
it,  the  lightnings  went  flying  hither  and  thither,  and  said, 
'  Here  we  are.'  " 

"  That  is  all  very  fine,"  said  Jack  Withers ;  "  but  I  stand 
by  the  Arabian  Nights,  after  all,  and  I  think  I  shall,  till 
Mr.  Edison  or  the  Taunton  locomotive  shop  will  make 
for  me  some  high-stepper  on  whose  back  I  may  rise 
above  the  clouds,  pass  over  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Massachusetts,  descend  in  the  garden  where  Blanche  is 
1  See  "  Stories  of  Adventure." 


52  STORIES  OF  INVENTION1. 

confined  by  the  hated  mistress  of  a  boarding-school  in 
Walpole,  and  then,  winning  her  ready  consent,  can  mount 
again  with  her,  and  before  morning  descend  in  the  garden 
of  a  beautiful  cottage  at  Newport.  We  will  spend  six 
weeks  in  playing  tennis  in  the  daytime,  dancing  in  the 
Casino  in  the  evenings,  and  in  sailing  in  Frank  Shattuck's 
yacht  between  whiles.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  would 
I  admit  that  the  Arabian  Nights  have  been  outdone  by 
modern  science." 

They  all  laughed  at  Jack's  extravaganza,  which  is  of  a 
kind  to  which  they  are  beginning  to  be  accustomed.  But 
Mabel  stuck  to  her  text,  and  said  seriously,  that  Uncle 
Fred  had  said  that  what  people  now  called  science  sprung 
from  the  workshops  of  these  very  magicians.  "  The  magi- 
cians then  had  all  the  science  there  was.  And  if  magic 
had  not  got  a  bad  name,  should  we  not  call  the  men  of 
science  magicians  now?" 

Uncle  Fritz  said  yes  to  all  her  questions,  but  he  said 
that  they  did  not  cover  the  whole  matter.  The  difference 
between  a  magician  and  a  man  of  science  involves  these 
habits  :  the  magician  keeps  secret  what  he  knows,  while 
the  man  of  science  discloses  all  he  learns.  Then  the 
magician  affected  to  have  spiritual  power  at  command, 
while  the  man  of  science  only  affects  to  use  what  he  calls 
physical  powers.  Till  either  of  them  tell  us  how  to  dis- 
tinguish spiritual  forces  from  physical  forces,  the  second 
distinction  is  of  the  less  importance.  But  the  other  has 
made  all  the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  poor 
magic-men  and  the  science-men.  For,  as  they  had  seen 
with  Friar  Bacon,  the  magic-men  have  had  their  stories 
told  by  most  ignorant  people,  seeing  they  did  not  gen- 
erally leave  any  records  behind  them ;  but  the  men  of 
modern  science,  having  chosen  to  tell  their  own  stories, 


VIRGIL   AT  SCHOOL.  53 

have  had  them  told,  on  the  whole,  reasonably  well, 
though  generally  stupidly. 

"  What  a  pity  we  have  not  Solomon's  books  of  science  !  " 
said  John  Tolman. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  pities  that  such  books  as 
those  were  not  kept.  It  seems  as  if  people  would  have 
built  on  such  foundations,  and  that  Science  would  have 
marched  from  step  to  step,  instead  of  beginning  over  and 
over  again.  But  we  do  have  Pliny's  Natural  History,  as 
he  chose  to  call  it.  .Far  from  building  on  that  as  a  foun- 
dation, the  Dark  Ages  simply  accepted  it.  And  there  are 
blunders  or  sheer  lies  in  that  book,  and  in  Aristotle's 
books,  and  Theophrastus's,  and  other  such,  which  have 
survived  even  to  our  day." 

The  children  were  peeping  into  the  collection  from 
which  the  Friar  Bacon  stories  had  been  read,  and  they 
lighted  on  these  scraps  about  the  supposed  life  of  Virgil. 
To  the  people  of  the  Dark  Ages  Virgil  was  much  more  a 
man  of  magic  than  a  poet. 


HOW  VIRGILIUS   WAS   SET  TO  SCHOOL. 

As  Virgilius  was  born,  then  the  town  of  Rome  quaked 
and  trembled :  and  in  his  youth  he  was  wise  and  subtle, 
and  was  put  to  school  at  Tolentin,  where  he  studied  dili- 
gently, for  he  was  of  great  understanding.  Upon  a  time 
the  scholars  had  licence  to  go  to  play  and  sport  them  in 
the  fields  after  the  usance  of  the  old  time  ;  and  there  was 
also  Virgilius  thereby  also  walking  among  the  hills  all 
about :  it  fortuned  he  spied  a  great  hole  in  the  side  of  a 
great  hill  wherein  he  went  so  deep  that  he  could  not  see 
no  more  light,  and  then  he  went  a  little  further  therein, 


54 


STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 


and  then  he  saw  some  light  again,  and  then  went  he  forth 
straight  :  and  within  a  little  while  after,  he  heard  a  voice 
that  called,  "  Virgilius,  Virgilius  ;  "  and  he  looked  about, 
and  he  could  not  see  no  body  ;  then  Virgilius  spake  and 
asked,  "Who  calleth  me?"  Then  heard  he  the  voice 
again,  but  he  saw  nobody  :  then  said  he,  "  Virgilius,  see 
ye  not  that  little  board  lying  beside  you  there,  marked 
with  that  word?  "  Then  answered  Virgilius,  "I  see  that 
board  well  enough."  The  voice  said,  "  Do  away  that 
board,  and  let  me  out  thereat."  Then  answered  Virgilius 
to  the  voice  that  was  under  the  little  board,  and  said, 
"  Who  art  thou  that  talkest  me  so  !  "  Then  answered 
the  devil  :  "  I  am  a  devil,  conjured  out  of  the  body  of  a 
certain  man,  and  banished  till  the  day  of  judgement,  with- 
out I  be  delivered  by  the  hands  of  men.  Thus,  Virgilius, 
I  pray  you  to  deliver  me  out  of  this  pain,  and  I  shall 
shew  unto  thee  many  books  of  necromancy,  and  how  thou 
shalt  come  by  it  lightly  and  know  the  practise  therein, 
that  no  man  in  the  science  of  necromancy  shall  pass  thee  ; 
and  moreover  I  shall  shew  and  inform  you  so  that  thou 
shalt  have  all  thy  desire,  whereby  methinks  it  is  a  great 
gift  for  so  little  a  doing,  for  ye  may  also  thus  all  your 
friends  helpen,  and  make  -your  enemies  unmighty." 
Through  that  great  promise  was  Virgil  tempted  ;  he  bad 
the  fiend  shew  the  books  to  him  that  he  might  have  and 
occupy  them  at  his  will.  And  so  the  fiend  shewed  him, 
and  then  Virgilius  pulled  open  a  board,  and  there  was  a 
little  hole,  and  thereat  crawled  the  devil  out  like  an  eel, 
and  came  and  stood  before  Virgilius  like  a  big  man  ; 
thereat  Virgilius  was  astonished  and  marvelled  greatly 
thereof  that  so  great  a  man  might  come  out  at  so  little  a 
hole  ;  then  said  Virgilius,  "  should  ye  well  pass  into  the 
hole  that  ye  came  out  of  ?  "  "  Yea,  I  shall  well,"  said  the 


VIRGIL'S  COPPER  HORSE.  55 

devil.  —  "I  hold  the  best  pledge  that  I  have,  ye  shall  not 
do  it."  "Well,"  said  the  devil,  "thereto  I  consent." 
And  then  the  devil  crawled  into  the  little  hole  again,  and 
as  he  was  therein,  Virgilius  covered  the  hole  again,  and 
so  was  the  devil  beguiled,  and  might  not  there  come  out 
again,  but  there  abideth  still  therein.  Then  called  the 
devil  dreadfully  to  Virgilius  and  said,  "  What  have  ye 
done?"  Virgilius  answered,  "Abide  there  still  to  your 
day  appointed."  And  from  thenceforth  abideth  he  there. 
And  so  Virgilius  became  very  cunning  in  the  practise  of 
the  black  science. 


HOWE  THE  EMPEROR  ASKED  COUNSEL  OF  VIR- 
GILIUS, HOW  THE  NIGHT  RUNNERS  AND  ILL 
DOERS  MIGHT  BE  RID-OUT  OF  THE  STREETS. 

The  emperor  had  many  complaints  of  the  night  run- 
ners and  thieves,  and  also  of  the  great  murdering  of 
people  in  the  night,  in  so  much  that  the  emperor  asked 
counsel  of  Virgilius,  and  said  :  "  That  he  hath  great  com- 
plaints of  the  thieves  that  runneth  by  night  for  they  kill 
many  men  ;  what  counsel,  Virgilius,  is  best  to  be  done?" 
Then  answered  Virgilius  to  the  emperor,  "  Ye  shall  make 
a  horse  of  copper  and  a  copper  man  upon  his  back, 
having  in  his  hands  a  flail  of  iron,  and  that  horse,  ye 
shall  so  bring  afore  the  towne  house,  and  ye  shall  let  cry 
that  a  man  from  henceforth  at  ten  of  the  clock  should 
ring  a  bell,  and  he  that  after  the  bell  was  rung  in  the 
streets  should  be  slain,  no  work  thereof  should  be  done." 
And  when,Lhis  cry  was  made  the  ruffians  set  not  a  point, 
but  kept  the  streets  as  they  did  afore  and  would  not  let 
therefor ;  and  as  soon  as  the  bell  was  rung  at  ten  of  the 
clock,  then  leaped  the  horse  of  copper  with  the  copper 


56  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

man  through  the  streets  of  Rome,  insomuch  that  he  left 
not  one  street  in  Rome  unsought;  and  as  soon  as  he 
found  any  man  or  woman  in  the  street  he  slew  them 
stalk  dead,  insomuch  that  he  slew  above  two  hundred 
persons  or  more.  And  this  seeing,  the  thieves  and  night- 
runners  how  they  might  find  a  remedy  therefor,  thought 
in  their  minds  to  make  a  drag  with  a  ladder  thereon ;  and 
as  they  would  go  out  by  night  they  took  their  ladders 
with  them,  and  when  they  heard  the  horse  come,  then 
cast  they  the  drag  upon  the  houses,  and  so  went  up  upon 
their  ladders  to  the  top  of  the  houses,  so  that  the  copper 
man  might  not  touch  them ;  and  so  abide  they  still  in 
their  wicked  doing.  Then  came  they  again  to  the  em- 
peror and  complained,  and  then  the  emperor  asked  coun- 
sel of  Virgilius ;  and  Virgilius  answered  and  said,  "  that 
then  he  must  get  two  copper  hounds  and  set  them  of 
either  side  of  the  copper  horse,  and  let  cry  again  that 
no  body  after  the  bell  is  rung  should  depart  out  of  their 
house  that  would  live."  But  the  night  walkers  cared  not 
a  point  for  that  cry;  but  when  they  heard  the  horse 
coming,  with  their  ladders  climbed  upon  the  houses,  but 
the  dogs  leaped  after  and  tore  them  all  in  pieces ;  and 
thus  the  noise  went  through  Rome,  in  so  much  that  no- 
body durst  in  the  night  go  in  the  street,  and  thus  all  the 
night-walkers  were  destroyed. 

HOW  VIRGILIUS    MADE  A    LAMP  THAT  AT   ALL 
,     TIMES   BURNED. 

For  profit  of  the  common  people,  Virgilius  on  a  great 
mighty  marble  pillar,  did  make  a  bridge  that  came  up  to 
the  palace,  and  so  went  Virgilius  well  up  the  pillar  out  of 
the  palace ;  that  palace  and  pillar  stood  in  the  midst  of 


VIRGILIUS'S  LAMP.  57 

Rome ;  and  upon  this  pillar  made  he  a  lamp  of  glass  that 
always  burned  without  going  out,  and  nobody  might  put 
it  out ;  and  this  lamp  lightened  over  all  the  city  of  Rome 
from  the  one  corner  to  the  other,  and  there  was  not  so 
little  a  street  but  it  gave  such  light  that  it  seemed  two 
torches  there  had  stand ;  and  upon  the  walls  of  the  palace 
made  he  a  metal  man  that  held  in  his  hand  a  metal  bow 
that  pointed  ever  upon  the  lamp  for  to  shoot  it  out ;  but 
always  burned  the  lamp  and  gave  light  over  all  Rome. 
And  upon  a  time  went  the  burgesses'  daughters  to  play 
in  the  palace  and  beheld  the  metal  man ;  and  one  of  them 
asked  in  sport,  why  he  shot  not  ?  And  then  she  came  to 
the  man  and  with  her  hand  touched  the  bow,  and  then 
the  bolt  flew  out,  and  brake  the  lamp  that  Virgilius  made  ; 
and  it  was  wonder  that  the  maiden  went  not  out  of  her 
mind  for  the  great  fear  she  had,  and  also  the  other  bur- 
gesses' daughters  that  were  in  her  company,  of  the  great 
stroke  that  it  gave  when  it  hit  the  lamp,  and  when  they 
saw  the  metal  man  so  swiftly  run  his  way;  and  never 
after  was  he  no  more  seen ;  and  this  foresaid  lamp  was 
abiding  burning  after  the  death  of  Virgilius  by  the  space 
of  three  hundred  years  or  more. 

It  is  on  the  wrecks  and  ruins  recorded  in  such  fat>les  as 
these  that  modern  science  is  builded. 


IV. 

BENVENUTO   CELLINI. 


"  "M  ^W  we  wiU  leave  the  fairy  tales>"  said 
^  ^     "  and  begin  on  modern  times." 

"  Modern  times  means  since  1492,"  said  Alice,  —  "  the 
only  date  in  history  I  am  quite  sure  of,  excepting  1866." 

"  Eighteen-hundred  and  sixty-six,"  said  John  Good- 
rich, —  "  the  Annus  Mirabilis,  celebrated  for  the  birth  of 
Miss  Alice  Francis  and  Mr.  J.  G." 

"  Hush,  hush  !  Uncle  Fritz  wants  to  say  something." 

"  We  will  leave  the  fairy  tales,"  said  poor  chicken- 
pecked  Uncle  Fritz,  "  and  begin  with  Benvenuto  Cellini. 
Who  has  seen  any  of  his  work?" 

Several  of  the  girls  who  had  been  in  Europe  remem- 
bered seeing  gold  and  silver  work  of  Benvenuto  Cellini's 
in  the  museums.  Uncle  Fritz  told  them  that  the  little 
hand-bell  used  on  his  own  tea-table  was  modelled  at 
Chicopee,  in  Massachusetts,  from  a  bell  which  was  the 
design  of  Benvenuto  Cellini  ;  and  he  sent  for  the  bell  that 
the  children  might  see  how  ingenious  was  the  ornamenta- 
tion, and  how  simply  the  different  designs  were  connected 
together. 

He  told  Alice  she  might  read  first  from  Vasari's  ac- 
count of  him.  Vasari's  book,  which  the  children  now 
saw  for  the  first  time,  is  a  very  entertaining  one.  Vasari 
was  himself  an  artist,  of  the  generation  just  following 


BENVENUTO   CELLINI.  59 

Michael  Angelo.  He  was,  indeed,  the  contemporary  of 
Raphael.  But  he  is  remembered  now,  not  for  his  pic- 
tures, nor  for  his  work  in  architecture,  both  of  which  were 
noted  in  his  time,  but  for  his  lives  of  the  most  excellent 
painters,  sculptors,  and  architects,  which  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1550.  Benvenuto  Cellini  was  born  ten  years  be- 
fore Vasari,  and  here  is  a  part  of  Vasari's  life  of  him. 


LIFE  OF  BENVENUTO  CELLINI. 

Benvenuto  Cellini,  citizen  of  Florence,  born  in  1500, 
at  present  a  sculptor,  in  his  youth  cultivated  the  gold- 
smith's business,  and  had  no  equal  in  that  branch.  He 
set  jewels,  and  adorned  them  with  diminutive  figures, 
exquisitely  formed,  and  some  of  them  so  curious  and 
fanciful  that  nothing  finer  or  more  beautiful  can  be 
conceived.  At  Rome  he  made  for  Pope  Clement  VII. 
a  button  to  be  worn  upon  his  pontifical  habit,  fixing  a 
diamond  to  it  with  the  most  exquisite  art.  He  was 
employed  to  make  the  stamps  for  the  Roman  mint, 
and  there  never  have  been  seen  finer  coins  than  those 
that  were  struck  in  Rome  at  that  period. 

After  the  death  of  Pope  Clement,  Benvenuto  returned 
to  Florence,  where  he  made  stamps  with  the  head  of 
Duke  Alessandro,  for  the  mint,  wonderfully  beautiful. 
Benvenuto,  having  at  last  devoted  himself  to  sculpture 
and  casting  statues,  made  in  France  many  works,  while 
he  was  employed  at  the  Court  of  King  Francis  I.  He 
afterwards  came  back  to  his  native  country,  where  he 
executed  in  metal  the  statue  of  Perseus,  -who  cut  off 
Medusa's  head.  This  work  was  brought  to  perfection 
with  the  greatest  art  and  diligence  imaginable. 


60  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Though  I  might  here  enlarge  on  the  productions  of 
Benvenuto,  who  always  shewed  himself  a  man  of  great 
spirit  and  vivacity,  bold,  active,  enterprising,  and  for- 
midable to  his  enemies,  —  a  man,  in  short,  who  knew 
as  well  how  to  speak  to  princes  as  to  exert  himself  in 
his  art,  —  I  shall  add  nothing  further,  since  he  has  written 
an  account  of  his  life  and  works,  and  a  treatise  on  gold- 
smith's work  as  well  as  on  casting  statues  and  many  other 
subjects,  with  more  art  and  eloquence  than  it  is  possible 
for  me  to  imitate.  I  shall  therefore  content  myself  with 
this  account  of  his  chief  performances. 

Benvenuto  was  quite  proud  of  his  own  abilities  as  a 
writer.  Very  fortunately  for  us  he  has  left  his  own 
memoirs.  Here  is  the  introduction. 


BENVENUTO'S    AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

"  It  is  a  duty  incumbent  on  upright  and  credible  men 
of  all  ranks,  who  have  performed  anything  noble  or 
praiseworthy,  to  record,  in  their  own  writing,  the  events 
of  their  lives ;  yet  they  should  not  commence  this  hon- 
orable task  before  they  have  passed  their  fortieth  year. 
Such  at  least  is  my  opinion,  now  that  I  have  completed 
my  fifty-eighth  year,  and  am  settled  in  Florence. 

"  Looking  back  on  some  delightful  and  happy  events  of 
my  life,  and  on  many  misfortunes  so  truly  overwhelming 
that  the  appalling  retrospect  makes  me  wonder  how  I 
reached  this  age,  in  vigor  and  prosperity,  through  God's 
goodness,  I  have  resolved  to  publish  an  account  of  my 
life. 

"  My  grandfather,  Andrea  Cellini,  was  still  living  when 


CELLINI'S  EDUCATION.  6 1 

I  was  about  three  years  of  age,  and  he  was  then  above 
a  hundred.  As  they  were  one  day  removing  a  water- 
pipe,  a  large  scorpion,  which  they  had  not  perceived, 
came  out  of  it.  The  scorpion  descended  upon  the  ground 
and  had  got  under  a  great  bench,  when  I,  seeing  it,  ran 
and  caught  it  in  my  hand.  This  scorpion  was  of  such 
a  size  that  whilst  I  held  it  in  my  little  hand,  it  put  out 
its  tail  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other  darted  its  two 
mouths.  I  ran  overjoyed  to  my  grandfather,  crying  out, 
'  Grandfather,  look  at  my  pretty  little  crab  ! '  The  good 
old  man,  who  knew  it  to  be  a  scorpion,  was  so  frightened, 
and  so  apprehensive  for  my  safety,  that  he  seemed  ready 
to  drop  down  dead,  and  begged  me  with  great  eager- 
ness to  give  the  creature  to  him ;  but  I  grasped  it  the 
harder  and  cried,  for  I  did  not  choose  to  part  with  it. 
My  father,  who  was  in  the  house,  ran  to  us  upon  hearing 
the  noise,  and,  happening  just  at  that  instant  to  espy  a 
pair  of  scissors,  he  laid  hold  of  them,  and,  by  caressing 
and  playing  with  me,  he  contrived  to  cut  off  the  head 
and  tail  of  the  scorpion.  Then,  finding  I  had  received 
no  harm  from  the  venomous  reptile,  he  pronounced  it 
a  happy  omen." 


His  father  taught  him  to  play  upon  the  flute,  and 
wished  him  to  devote  himself  to  music;  but  his  own 
inclinations  were  different. 

"  Having  attained  the  age  of  fifteen,  I  engaged  myself, 
against  my  father's  inclinations,  with  a  goldsmith  named 
Antonio  di  Sandro,  an  excellent  artist  and  a  very  worthy 
man.  My  father  would  not  have  him  allow  me  any 
wages;  for  this  reason,  that  since  I  voluntarily  applied 
myself  to  this  art,  I  might  have  an  opportunity  to  with- 


62  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

draw  whenever  I  thought  proper.  So  great  was  my 
inclination  to  improve,  that  in  a  few  months  I  rivalled 
the  most  skilful  journeyman  in  the  business,  and  began 
to  reap  some  fruits  from  my  labor.  I  continued,  however, 
to  play  sometimes,  through  complaisance  to  my  father, 
either  upon  the  flute  or  the  horn ;  and  I  constantly  drew 
tears  and  deep  sighs  from  him  every  time  he  heard  me. 
From  a  feeling  of  filial  piety,  I  often  gave  him  that  satis- 
faction, endeavoring  to  persuade  him  that  it  gave  me 
also  particular  pleasure. 

'*  Once  when  I  was  staying  at  Pisa,  my  father  wrote 
to  me  in  every  letter  exhorting  me  not  to  neglect  my  flute, 
in  which  he  had  taken  so  much  pains  to  instruct  me. 
Upon  this,  I  entirely  lost  all  inclination  to  return  to  him ; 
and  to  such  a  degree  did  I  hate  that  abominable  flute, 
that  I  thought  myself  in  a  sort  of  paradise  in  Pisa,  where 
I  never  once  played  upon  that  instrument." 


At  the  age  of  twenty-three  (in  1523),  Cellini  went  to 
Rome,  where  he  did  much  work  for  the  Pope,  Clem- 
ent VII. 

"About  this  time  so  dreadful  an  epidemic  disease 
prevailed  in  Rome,  that  several  thousands  died  every 
day.  Somewhat  terrified  at  this  calamity,  I  began  to 
indulge  myself  in  certain  recreations,  as  the  fancy  took 
me.  On  holidays  I  amused  myself  with  visiting  the 
antiquities  of  that  city,  and  sometimes  took  their  figures 
in  wax ;  at  other  times,  I  made  drawings  of  them.  As 
these  antiquities  are  all  ruinous  edifices,  where  a  number 
of  pigeons  build  their  nests,  I  had  a  mind  to  divert  myself 
among  them  with  my  fowling-piece,  and  often  returned 


THE  SIEGE   OF  ROME.  63 

home  laden  with  pigeons  of  the  largest  size.  But  I  never 
chose  to  put  more  than  a  single  ball  into  my  piece,  and  in 
this  manner,  being  a  good  marksman,  I  procured  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  game.  The  fowling-piece  was,  both 
on  the  inside  and  the  outside,  as  bright  as  a  looking-glass. 
I  likewise  made  the  powder  as  fine  as  the  minutest  dust, 
and  in  the  use  of  it  I  discovered  some  of  the  most 
admirable  secrets  that  ever  were  known  till  this  time. 
When  I  had  charged  my  piece  with  a  quantity  of  powder 
equal  in  weight  to  the  fifth  part  of  the  ball,  it  carried  two 
hundred  paces,  point  blank. 

"  While  I  was  enjoying  these  pleasures,  my  spirits  sud- 
denly revived.  I  no  longer  had  my  usual  gloom,  and 
I  worked  to  more  purpose  than  when  my  attention  was 
wholly  engrossed  by  business ;  on  the  whole,  my  gun 
turned  rather  to  my  advantage  than  the  contrary. 

"  All  Italy  was  now  up  in  arms,  and  the  Constable 
Bourbon,  finding  there  were  no  troops  in  Rome,  eagerly 
advanced  with  his  army  towards  that  capital.  Upon  the 
news  of  his  approach,  all  the  inhabitants  took  up  arms. 
I  engaged  fifty  brave  young  men  to  serve  under  me,  and 
we  were  well  paid  and  kindly  treated. 

"  The  army  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon  having  already 
appeared  before  the  walls  of  Rome,  Alessandro  del  Bene 
requested  that  I  would  go  with  him  to  oppose  the  enemy. 
I  complied,  and,  taking  one  of  the  stoutest  youths  with 
us,  —  we  were  afterwards  joined  by  another,  —  we  came 
up  to  the  walls  of  Campo  Santo,  and  there  descried  that 
great  army  which  was  employing  every  effort  to  enter  the 
town  at  that  part  of  the  wall  to  which  we  had  approached. 
Many  young  men  were  slain  without  the  walls,  where 
they  fought  with  the  utmost  fury ;  there  was  a  remarkably 
thick  mist. 


64  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

"  Levelling  my  arquebuse  where  I  saw  the  thickest 
crowd  of  the  enemy,  I  discharged  it  with  a  deliberate  aim 
at  a  person  who  seemed  to  be  lifted  above  the  rest; 
but  the  mist  prevented  me  from  distinguishing  whether 
he  were  on  horseback  or  on  foot.  I  then  cautiously 
approached  the  walls,  and  perceived  that  there  was  an 
extraordinary  confusion  among  the  assailants,  occasioned 
by  our  having  shot  the  Duke  of  Bourbon ;  he  was,  as 
I  understood  afterwards,  that  chief  personage  whom  I 
saw  raised  above  the  rest." 


The  Pope  was  induced  by  an  enemy  of  Benvenuto,  the 
Cardinal  Salviati,  to  send  for  a  rival  goldsmith,  Tobbia,  to 
come  to  Rome.  On  his  arrival  both  were  summoned  into 
the  Pope's  presence. 

"  He  then  commanded  each  of  us  to  draw  a  design  for 
setting  a  unicorn's  horn,  the  most  beautiful  that  ever  was 
seen,  which  had  cost  1 7,000  ducats.  As  the  Pope  pro- 
posed making  a  present  of  it  to  King  Francis,  he  chose  to 
have  it  first  richly  adorned  with  gold ;  so  he  employed  us 
to  draw  the  designs.  When  we  had  finished  them  we  car- 
ried them  to  the  Pope.  Tobbia's  design  was  in  the  form 
of  a  candlestick ;  the  horn  was  to  enter  it  like  a  candle, 
and  at  the  bottom  of  the  candlestick  he  had  represented 
four  little  unicorns'  heads, — a  most  simple  invention. 
As  soon  as  I  saw  it,  I  could  not  contain  myself  so  as  to 
avoid  smiling  at  the  oddity  of  the  conceit.  The  Pope, 
perceiving  this,  said,  '  Let  me  see  that  design  of  yours.' 
It  was  the  single  head  of  a  unicorn,  fitted  to  receive  the 
horn.  I  had  made  the  most  beautiful  sort  of  head  con- 
ceivable, for  I  drew  it  partly  in  the  form  of  a  horse's  head, 


IMPRISONMENT.  65 

and  partly  in  that  of  a  hart's,  adorned  with  the  finest  sort 
of  wreaths  and  other  devices ;  so  that  no  sooner  was  my 
design  seen  but  the  whole  Court  gave  it  the  preference." 


Benvenuto  continued  to  make  many  beautiful  things 
for  Pope  Clement  VII.  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 
That  Pope  was  succeeded  in  the  papal  chair  by  Cardi- 
nal Farnese  (Paul  III.),  on  the  i3th  of  October,  1534. 

"  I  had  formed  a  resolution  to  set  out  for  France,  as  well 
because  I  perceived  that  the  Pope's  favor  was  withdrawn 
from  me  by  means  of  slanderers  who  misrepresented  my 
services,  as  for  fear  that  those  of  my  enemies  who  had 
most  influence  might  still  do  me  some  greater  injury.  For 
these  reasons  I  was  desirous  to  remove  to  some  other 
country,  and  see  whether  fortune  would  there  prove  more 
favorable  to  me.  Leaving  Rome,  I  bent  my  course  to 
Florence,  whence  I  travelled  on  to  Bologna,  Venice,  and 
Padua." 

He  reached  Paris,  with  two  workmen  whom  he  took 
with  him  from  Rome,  "  without  meeting  any  ill  accident, 
and  travelling  on  in  uninterrupted  mirth."  But  being  dis- 
satisfied with  his  reception  there,  he  returned  instantly  to 
Rome,  where  his  fears  were  realized ;  for  he  was  arrested 
by  order  of  the  Pope,  and  made  a  prisoner  in  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angel o. 

"This  was  the  first  time  I  ever  knew  the  inside  of  a 
prison,  and  I  was  then  in  my  thirty-seventh  year.  The 
constable  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  was  a  countryman  of 
mine,  a  Florentine,  named  Signer  Giorgio  Ugolini.  This 
worthy  gentleman  behaved  to  me  with  the  greatest  polite- 
ness, permitting  me  to  walk  freely  about  the  castle  on  my 

5 


66  STORIES  OF  INVENTION.  ' 

parole  of  honor,  and  for  no  other  reason  but  because  he 
saw  the  severity  and  injustice  of  my  treatment. 

"  Finding  I  had  been  treated  with  so  much  rigor  in 
the  affair,  I  began  to  think  seriously  about  my  escape. 
I  got  my  servants  to  bring  me  new  thick  sheets,  and  did 
not  send  back  the  dirty  ones.  Upon  their  asking  me  for 
them,  I  answered  that  I  had  given  them  away  to  some  of 
the  poor  soldiers.  I  pulled  all  the  straw  out  of  the  tick  of 
my  bed,  and  burned  it ;  for  I  had  a  chimney  in  the  room 
where  I  lay.  I  then  cut  those  sheets  into  a  number  of 
slips  each  about  one  third  of  a  cubit  in  width ;  and  when 
I  thought  I  had  made  a  sufficient  quantity  to  reach  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  lofty  tower  of  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo,  I  told  my  servants  that  I  had  given  away  as  much 
of  my  linen  as  I  thought  proper,  and  desired  they  would 
take  care  to  bring  me  clean  sheets,  adding  that  I  would 
constantly  return  the  dirty  ones. 

"  The  constable  of  the  castle  had  annually  a  certain 
disorder  which  totally  deprived  him  of  his  senses ;  and 
when  the  fit  came  upon  him,  he  was  talkative  to  excess. 
Every  year  he  had  some  different  whim  :  one  time  he 
fancied  himself  metamorphosed  into  a  pitcher  of  oil ;  an- 
other time  he  thought  himself  a  frog,  and  began  to  leap 
as  such ;  another  time  he  imagined  he  was  dead,  and  it 
was  found  necessary  to  humor  his  conceit  by  making  a 
show  of  burying  him ;  thus  he  had  every  year  some  new 
frenzy.  This  year  he  fancied  himself  a  bat,  and  when  he 
went  to  take  a  walk,  he  sometimes  made  just  such  a  noise 
as  bats  do  ;  he  likewise  used  gestures  with  his  hands  and 
body,  as  if  he  were  going  to  fly.  His  physicians  and  his 
old  servants,  who  knew  his  disorder,  procured  him  all  the 
pleasures  and  amusements  they  could  think  of,  and  as 
they  found  he  delighted  greatly  in  my  conversation,  they 


ESCAPE.  67 

frequently  came  to  me  to  conduct  me  to  his  apartment, 
where  the  poor  man  often  detained  me  three  or  four  hours 
chatting  with  him. 

"  He  asked  me  whether  I  had  ever  had  a  fancy  to  fly. 
I  answered  that  I  had  always  been  very  ready  to  attempt 
such  things  as  men  found  most  difficult ;  and  that  with 
regard  to  flying,  as  God  had  given  me  a  body  admirably 
well  calculated  for  running,  I  had  even  resolution  enough 
to  attempt  to  fly.  He  then  proposed  to  me  to  explain 
how  I  could  contrive  it.  I  replied  that  when  I  attentively 
considered  the  several  creatures  that  fly,  and  thought  of 
effecting  by  art  what  they  do  by  the  force  of  nature,  I  did 
not  find  one  so  fit  to  imitate  as  the  bat.  As  soon'  as  the 
poor  man  heard  mention  made  of  a  bat,  he  cried  out  aloud, 
'  It  is  very  true  !  a  bat  is  the  thing.'  He  then  addressed 
himself  to  me,  and  said, '  Benvenuto,  if  you  had  the  oppor- 
tunity, would  you  have  the  heart  to  make  an  attempt  to 
fly  ? '  I  answered  that  if  he  would  give  me  leave,  I  had 
courage  enough  to  attempt  to  fly  by  means  of  a  pair  of 
wings  waxed  over.  He  said  thereupon,  '  I  should  like  to 
see  you  fly ;  but  as  the  Pope  has  enjoined  me  to  watch 
over  you  with  the  utmost  care,  I  am  resolved  to  keep  you 
locked  up  with  a  hundred  keys,  that  you  may  not  slip  out 
of  my  hands.'  I  said,  before  all  present,  'Confine  me  as 
close  as  you  please,  I  will  contrive  to  make  my  escape, 
notwithstanding.'  " 

At  night,  with  a  pair  of  pincers  which  he  had  secured, 
he  removed  the  nails  which  fastened  the  plates  of  iron  fixed 
upon  the  door,  imitating  with  wax  the  heads  of  the  nails 
he  took  out^  so  that  their  absence  need  not  be  seen. 

"  One  holiday  evening,  the  constable  being  very  much 
disordered,  he  scarce  said  anything  else  but  that  he  was 
become  a  bat,  and  desired  his  people  that  if  Benvenuto 


68  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

should  happen  to  escape,  they  should  take  no  notice  of  it, 
for  he  must  soon  catch  me,  as  he  should  doubtless  be 
better  able  to  fly  by  night  than  I ;  adding,  '  Benvenuto  is 
only  a  counterfeit  bat,  but  I  am  a  bat  in  real  earnest.' 

"  As  I  had  formed  a  resolution  to  attempt  my  escape 
that  night,  I  began  by  praying  fervently  to  Almighty  God 
that  it  would  please  him  to  assist  me  in  the  enterprise. 
Two  hours  before  daybreak,  I  took  the  iron  plates  from 
the  door  with  great  trouble.  I  at  last  forced  the  door,  and 
having  taken  with  me  my  slips  of  linen,  which  I  had  rolled 
up  in  bundles  with  the  utmost  care,  I  went  out  and  got 
upon  the  right  side  of  the  tower,  and  leaped  upon  two  tiles 
of  the  roof  with  the  greatest  ease.  I  was  in  a  white 
doublet,  and  had  on  a  pair  of  white  half-hose,  over  which 
I  wore  a  pair  of  little  light  boots,  that  reached  half-way 
up  my  legs,  and  in  one  of  these  I  put  my  dagger.  I  then 
took  the  end  of  one  of  my  bundles  of  long  slips,  which  I 
had  made  out  of  the  sheets  of  my  bed,  and  fastened  it  to 
one  of  the  tiles  of  the  roof  that  happened  to  jut  out. 
Then  letting  myself  down  gently,  the  whole  weight  of  my 
body  being  sustained  by  my  arm,  I  reached  the  ground. 
It  was  not  a  moonlight  night,  but  the  stars  shone  with 
resplendent  lustre.  When  I  had  touched  the  ground,  I 
first  contemplated  the  great  height  which  I  had  descended 
with  so  much  courage,  and  then  walked  away  in  high  joy, 
thinking  I  had  recovered  my  liberty.  But  I  soon  found 
myself  mistaken,  for  the  constable  had  caused  two  pretty 
high  walls  to  be  erected  on  that  side.  I  managed  to  fix 
a  long  pole  against  the  first  wall,  and  by  the  strength  of 
my  arms  to  climb  to  the  top  of  it.  I  then  fastened  my 
other  string  of  slips,  and  descended  down  the  steep  wall. 

"  There  was  still  another  one  ;  and  in  letting  myself  down, 
being  unable  to  hold  out  any  longer,  I  fell,  and,  striking 


RESCUE.  69 

my  head,  became  quite  insensible.  I  continued  in  that 
state  about  an  hour  and  a  half,  as  nearly  as  I  can  guess. 
The  day  beginning  to  break,  the  cool  breeze  that  pre- 
cedes the  rising  of  the  sun  brought  me  to  my  senses ; 
but  I  conceived  a  strange  notion  that  I  had  been  be- 
headed, and  was  then  in  purgatory.  I  recovered  by 
degrees  my  strength  and  powers,  and,  perceiving  that 
I  had  got  out  of  the  castle,  I  soon  recollected  all  that 
had  befallen  me.  Upon  attempting  to  rise  from  the 
ground,  I  found  that  my  right  leg  was  broken,  three 
inches  above  the  heel,  which  threw  me  into  a  terrible  con- 
sternation. Cutting  with  my  dagger  the  part  of  my  string 
of  slips  I  had  left,  I  bandaged  my  leg  as  well  as  I  could. 
I  then  crept  on  my  hands  and  knees  towards  the  gate  with 
my  dagger  in  my  hand,  and  effected  my  egress.  It  was 
about  five  hundred  paces  from  the  place  where  I  had 
had  my  fall  to  the  gate  by  which  I  entered  the  city.  It 
was  then  broad  daylight.  As  I  happened  to  meet  with  a 
water-carrier,  who  had  loaded  his  ass,  and  filled  his  ves- 
sels with  water,  I  called  to  him,  and  begged  he  would  put 
me  upon  the  beast's  back,  and  carry  me  to  the  landing- 
place  of  the  steps  of  St.  Peter's  Church.  I  offered  to  give 
him  a  gold  crown,  and,  so  saying,  I  clapped  my  hand 
upon  my  purse,  which  was  very  well  lined.  The  honest 
waterman  instantly  took  me  upon  his  back,  and  carried 
me  to  the  steps  before  St.  Peter's  Church,  where  I  desired 
him  to  leave  me  and  run  back  to  his  ass. 

"  Whilst  I  was  crawling  along  upon  all  four,  one  of  the 
servants  of  Cardinal  Cornaro  knew  me,  and,  running  im- 
mediately tcr  his  master's  apartment,  awakened  him  out  of 
his  sleep,  saying  to  him,  '  My  most  reverend  Lord,  here  is 
your  jeweller,  Benvenuto,  who  has  made  his  escape  out 
of  the  castle,  and  is  crawling  along  upon  all  four,  quite 


70  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

besmeared  with  blood.'  The  cardinal,  the  moment  he 
heard  this,  said  to  his  servants,  '  Run,  and  bring  him 
hither  to  my  apartment  upon  your  backs.'  When  I  came 
into  his  presence  the  good  cardinal  bade  me  fear  nothing, 
and  immediately  sent  for  an  excellent  surgeon,  who  set 
the  bone,  bandaged  my  leg,  and  bled  me.  The  cardinal 
then  caused  me  to  be  put  into  a  private  apartment,  and 
went  directly  to  the  Vatican,  in  order  to  intercede  in  my 
behalf  with  the  Pope. 

"Meanwhile  the  report  of  my  escape  made  a  great 
noise  all  over  Rome ;  for  the  long  string  of  sheeting 
fastened  to  the  top  of  the  lofty  tower  of  the  castle  had 
excited  attention,  and  the  inhabitants  ran  in  crowds  to 
behold  the  sight.  By  this  time  the  frenzy  of  the  consta- 
ble had  reached  its  highest  pitch;  he  wanted,  in  spite 
of  all  his  servants,  to  fly  from  the  same  tower  himself, 
declaring  there  was  but  one  way  to  retake  me,  and 
that  was  to  fly  after  me.  He  caused  himself  to  be  car- 
ried into  the  presence  of  his  Holiness,  and  began  a  ter- 
rible outcry,  saying  that  I  had  promised  him,  upon  my 
honor,  that  I  would  not  fly  away,  and  had  flown  away 
notwithstanding. ' ' 

The  Cardinal  Cornaro,  however,  and  others  interceded 
for  Benvenuto  with  the  Pope,  on  account  of  his  cour- 
age, and  the  extraordinary  efforts  of  his  ingenuity,  which 
seemed  to  surpass  human  capacity.  The  Pope  said  he 
had  intended  to  keep  him  near  his  person,  and  to  prevent 
him  from  returning  to  France,  adding,  "  I  am  concerned 
to  hear  of  his  sufferings,  however.  Bid  him  take  care  of 
his  health ;  and  when  he  is  thoroughly  recovered,  it  shall 
be  my  study  to  make  him  some  amends  for  his  past 
troubles."  He  was  visited  by  young  and  old,  persons  of 
all  ranks. 


VISIT  FROM  KING  FRANCIS.  Jl 

After  this,  Benvenuto  went  once  more  to  France,  where 
he  was  received  with  high  consideration  by  Francis  I., 
who  gave  him,  for  his  home  and  workshop  in  Paris,  a 
large  old  castle  called  the  Nesle,  of  a  triangular  form, 
close  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  Here,  with  workmen 
brought  with  him  from  Italy,  he  began  many  great  works. 

"  Being  thus  become  a  favorite  of  the  king,  I  was  uni- 
versally admired.  As  soon  as  I  had  received  silver  to 
make  it  of,  I  began  to  work  on  the  statue  of  Jupiter,  and1 
took  into  my  service  several  journeymen.  We  worked 
day  and  night  with  the  utmost  assiduity,  insomuch  that, 
having  finished  Jupiter,  Vulcan,  and  Mars  in  earth,  and 
Jupiter  being  pretty  forward  in  silver,  my  shop  began  to 
make  a  grand  show.  Just  about  this  time  the  king  made 
his  appearance  at  Paris,  and  I  went  to  pay  my  respects  to 
him.  When  his  Majesty  saw  me,  he  called  to  me  in  high 
spirits,  and  asked  me  whether  I  had  anything  curious  to 
show  him  at  my  shop,  for  he  intended  to  call  there.  I 
told  him  of  all  I  had  done,  and  he  expressed  an  earnest 
desire  to  see  my  performances ;  and  after  dinner  that  day, 
all  the  nobility  belonging  to  the  Court  of  France  repaired 
to  my  shop. 

"  I  had  just  come  home,  and  was  beginning  to  work,  when 
the  king  made  his  appearance  at  my  castle  gate.  Upon 
hearing  the  sound  of  so  many  hammers,  he  commanded 
his  retinue  to  be  silent.  All  my  people  were  at  work,  so 
that  the  king  came  upon  us  quite  unexpectedly.  As  he 
entered  the  saloon,  the  first  object  he  perceived  was  my- 
self with  a  large  piece  of  plate  in  my  hand,  which  was  to 
make  the  bedy  of  Jupiter ;  another  was  employed  on  the 
head,  another  again  on  the  legs,  so  that  the  shop  re- 
sounded with  the  beating  of  hammers.  His  Majesty  was 
highly  pleased,  and  returned  to  his  palace,  after  having 


?2  STOXIES  OF  INVENTION. 

conferred  so  many  favors  on  me  that  it  would  be  tedious 
to  enumerate  them. 

"  Having  with  the  utmost  diligence  finished  the  beau- 
tiful statue  of  Jupiter,  with  its  gilt  pedestal,  I  placed  it 
upon  a  wooden  socle,  which  scarce  made  any  appearance, 
and  within  that  socle  I  fixed  four  little-  globes  of  wood, 
which  were  more  than  half  hidden  in  their  sockets,  and  so 
contrived  that  a  little  child  could  with  the  utmost  ease 
move  this  statue  of  Jupiter  backwards  and  forwards,  and 
turn  it  about.  I  took  it  with  me  to  Fontainebleau,  where 
the  King  then  resided.  I  was  told  to  put  it  in  the  gallery, 
—  a  place  which  might  be  called  a  corridor,  about  two 
hundred  paces  long,  adorned  and  enriched  with  pictures 
and  pieces  of  sculpture,  amongst  them  some  of  the  finest 
imitations  of  the  antique  statues  of  Rome.  Here  also  I 
introduced  my  Jupiter ;  and  when  I  saw  this  great  display 
of  the  wonders  of  art,  I  said  to  myself,  '  This  is  like  pass- 
ing between  the  pikes  of  the  enemy ;  Heaven  protect  me 
from  all  danger  \ ' 

"  This  figure  of  Jupiter  had  a  thunderbolt  in  his  right 
hand,  and  by  his  attitude  seemed  to  be  just  going  to 
throw  it ;  in  his  left  I  had  placed  a  globe,  and  amongst 
the  flames  I  had  with  great  dexterity  put  a  piece  of  white 
torch.  On  the  approach  of  night  I  lighted  the  torch  in 
the  hand  of  Jupiter ;  and  as  it  was  raised  somewhat  above 
his  head,  the  light  fell  upon  the  statue,  and  caused  it  to  ap- 
pear to  much  greater  advantage  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
done.  When  I  saw  his  Majesty  enter  with  several  great 
lords  and  noblemen,  I  ordered  my  boy  to  push  the  statue 
before  him,  and  this  motion,  being  made  with  admirable 
contrivance,  caused  it  to  appear  alive  ;  thus  the  other  fig- 
ures in  the  gallery  were  left  somewhat  behind,  and  the  eyes 
of  all  the  beholders  were  first  struck  with  my  performance. 


STATUE   OF  PERSEUS.  73 

"  The  king  immediately  cried  out :  '  This  is  one  of  the 
finest  productions  of  art  that  ever  was  beheld.  I,  who  take 
pleasure  in  such  things  and  understand  them,  could  never 
have  conceived  a  piece  of  work  the  hundredth  part  so 
beautiful ! ' " 


Cellini,  however,  who  was  exacting  and  sensitive,  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  the  treatment  of  the  King  of 
France ;  and,  leaving  his  workmen  at  his  tower  of  the 
Nesle,  he  returned  to  Italy,  and  engaged  in  the  service  of 
Cosmo  de'  Medici,  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  who  assigned 
him  a  house  to  work  in. 

His  chief  performance  here  was  a  bronze  statue  of 
Perseus  for  the  fine  square  before  the  Palazzo  Vecchio. 
After  many  drawbacks,  doubts,  and  difficulties,  — 

"  I  now  took  courage,  resolving  to  depend  on  myself, 
and  banished  all  those  thoughts  which  from  time  to  time 
occasioned  me  great  inquietude,  and  made  me  sorely  re- 
pent my  ever  having  quitted  France.  I  still  flattered  my- 
self that  if  I  could  but  finish  my  statue  of  Perseus,  all 
my  labors  would  be  converted  to  delight,  and  meet  with 
a  glorious  and  happy  reward. 

"This  statue  was  intended  to  be  of  bronze,  five  ells 
in  height,  of  one  piece,  and  hollow.  I  first  formed  my 
model  of  clay,  more  slender  than  the  statue  was  intended 
to  be.  I  then  baked  it,  and  covered  it  with  wax  of  the 
thickness  of  a  finger,  which  I  modelled  into  the  perfect 
form  of  the  statue.  In  order  to  effect  in  concave  what 
the  wax  represented  in  convex,  I  covered  the  wax  with 
clay,  and  baked  this  second  covering.  Thus,  the  wax 
dissolving,  and  escaping  by  fissures  left  open  for  the  pur- 
pose, I  obtained,  between  the  first  model  and  the  second 


74  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

covering,  a  space  for  the  introduction  of  the  metal.  In 
order  to  introduce  the  bronze  without  moving  the  first 
model,  I  placed  the  model  in  a  pit  dug  under  the  furnace, 
and  by  means  of  pipes  and  apertures  in  the  model  itself, 
I  meant  to  introduce  the  liquid  metal. 

"  After  I  had  made  its  coat  of  earth,  covered  it  well,  and 
bound  it  properly  with  irons,  I  began  by  means  of  a  slow 
fire  to  draw  off  the  wax,  which  melted  away  by  many 
vent-holes,  —  for  the  more  of  these  are  made,  the  better 
the  moulds  are  filled ;  and  when  I  had  entirely  stripped 
off  the  wax,  I  made  a  sort  of  fence  round  my  Perseus, 
that  is,  round  the  mould,  of  bricks,  piling  them  one  upon 
another,  and  leaving  several  vacuities  for  the  fire  to  exhale 
at.  I  next  began  gradually  to  put  on  the  wood,  and  kept 
a  constant  fire  for  two  days  and  two  nights,  till,  the  wax 
being  quite  off  and  the  mould  well  baked,  I  began  to  dig 
a  hole  to  bury  my  mould  in,  and  observed  all  those  fine 
methods  of  proceeding  that  are  proscribed  by  our  art. 
When  I  had  completely  dug  my  hole,  I  took  my  mould, 
and  by  means  of  levers  and  strong  cables  directed  it  with 
care,  and  suspended  it  a  cubit  above  the  level  of  the 
furnace,  so  that  it  hung  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  hole. 
I  then  let  it  gently  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  the 
furnace,  and  placed  it  with  all  the  care  and  exactness  I 
possibly  could.  After  I  had  finished  this  part  of  my  task 
I  began  to  make  a  covering  of  the  very  earth  I  had  taken 
off;  and  in  proportion  as  I  raised  the  earth,  I  made  vents 
for  it,  of  a  sort  of  tubes  of  baked  earth,  generally  used  for 
conduits,  and  other  things  of  a  similar  nature. 

"  I  had  caused  my  furnace  to  be  filled  with  several 
pieces  of  brass  and  bronze,  and  heaped  them  upon  one 
another  in  the  manner  taught  us  by  our  art,  taking  par- 
ticular care  to  leave  a  passage  for  the  flames,  that  the 


THE  STATUE   CAST.  75 

metal  might  the  sooner  assume  its  color,  and  dissolve  into 
a  fluid.  Thus,  with  great  alacrity,  I  excited  my  men  to 
lay  on  the  pine-wood,  which,  because  of  the  oiliness  of 
the  resinous  matter  that  oozes  from  the  pine-tree  and  that 
my  furnace  was  admirably  well  made,  burned  at  such  a 
rate  that  I  was  continually  obliged  to  run  to  and  fro, 
which  greatly  fatigued  me.  I,  however,  bore  the  hard- 
ship ;  but,  to  add  to  my  misfortune,  the  shop  took  fire, 
and  we  were  all  very  much  afraid  that  the  roof  would  fall 
in  and  crush  us.  From  another  quarter,  that  is,  from  the 
garden,  the  sky  poured  in  so  much  rain  and  wind  that 
it  cooled  my  furnace. 

"  Thus  did  I  continue  to  struggle  with  these  cross  acci- 
dents for  several  hours,  and  exerted  myself  to  such  a 
degree  that  my  constitution,  though  robust,  could  no 
longer  bear  such  severe  hardship,  and  I  was  suddenly 
attacked  by  a  most  violent  intermitting  fever ;  in  short, 
I  was  so  ill  that  I  found  myself  under  a  necessity  of  lying 
down  upon  my  bed.  This  gave  me  great  concern,  but 
it  was  unavoidable.  I  thereupon  addressed  myself  to 
my  assistants,  who  were  about  ten  in  number,  saying 
to  them :  '  Be  careful  to  observe  the  method  which  I  have 
shown  you,  and  use  all  possible  expedition ;  for  the  metal 
will  soon  be  ready.  You  cannot  mistake ;  these  two 
worthy  men  here  will  quickly  make  the  orifices.  With  two 
such  directors  you  can  certainly  contrive  to  pour  out  the 
hot  metal,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but  my  mould  will  be 
filled  completely.  I  find  myself  extremely  ill,  and  really 
believe  that  in  a  few  hours  this  severe  disorder  will  put 
an  end  to  my  life.'  Thus  I  left  them  in  great  sorrow, 
and  went  to  bed.  I  then  ordered  the  maids  to  cany 
victuals  and  drink  into  the  shop  for  all  the  men,  and  told 
them  I  did  not  expect  to  live  till  the  next  morning.  In 


76  STORIES  OF -INVENTION. 

this  manner  did  I  continue  for  two  hours  in  a  violent 
fever,  which  I  every  moment  perceived  to  increase,  and 
I  was  incessantly  crying  out,  '  I  am  dying,  I  am  dying.' 

"  My  housekeeper  was  one  of  the  most  sensible  and 
affectionate  women  in  the  world.  She  rebuked  me  for 
giving  way  to  vain  fears,  and  at  the  same  time  attended 
me  with  the  greatest  kindness  and  care  imaginable  ;  how- 
ever, seeing  me  so  very  ill,  and  terrified  to  such  a  degree, 
she  could  not  contain  herself,  but  shed  a  flood  of  tears, 
which  she  endeavored  to  conceal  from  me.  Whilst  we 
were  both  in  this  deep  affliction,  I  perceived  a  man  enter 
the  room,  who  in  his  person  appeared  to  be  as  crooked 
and  distorted  as  a  great  S,  and  began  to  express  himself 
in  these  terms,  in  a  dismal  and  melancholy  voice  :  '  Alas, 
poor  Benvenuto,  your  work  is  spoiled,  and  the  misfortune 
admits  of  no  remedy.' 

"No  sooner  had  I  heard  the  words  uttered  by  this 
messenger  of  evil,  but  I  cried  out  so  loud  that  my  voice 
might  be  heard  to  the  skies,  and  got  out  of  bed.  I 
began  immediately  to  dress,  and,  giving  plenty  of  kicks 
and  cuffs  to  the  maidservants  and  the  boy  as  they  offered 
to  help  me  on  with  my  clothes,  I  complained  bit- 
terly in  these  terms  :  '  Oh,  you  envious  and  treacherous 
wretches,  this  is  a  piece  of  villany  contrived  on  purpose  ; 
but  I  will  sift  it  to  the  bottom,  and  before  I  die  give  such 
proofs  who  I  am  as  shall  not  fail  to  astonish  the  whole 
world.'  Having  huddled  on  my  clothes,  I  went,  with  a 
mind  boding  evil,  to  the  shop,  where  I  found  all  those 
whom  I  had  left  so  alert  and  in  such  high  spirits,  stand- 
ing in  the  utmost  confusion  and  astonishment.  I  there- 
upon addressed  them  thus :  '  Listen,  all  of  you,  to  what 
I  am  going  to  say ;  and  since  you  either  would  not  or 
could  not  follow  the  method  I  pointed  out,  obey  me  now 


THE   CRISIS.  77 

that  I  am  present.  My  work  is  before  us ;  and  let  none 
of  you  offer  to  oppose  or  contradict  me,  for  such  cases 
as  this  require  activity  and  not  counsel.'  Hereupon  one 
of  them  had  the  assurance  to  say  to  me,  i  Look  you, 
Benvenuto,  you  have  undertaken  a  work  which  our  art 
cannot  compass,  and  which  is  not  to  be  effected  by 
human  power.' 

"  Hearing  these  words,  I  turned  round  in  such  a  pas- 
sion, and  seemed  so  bent  upon  mischief,  that  both  he  and 
all  the  rest  unanimously  cried  out  to  me, '  Give  your  orders, 
and  we  will  all  second  you  in  whatever  you  command ;  we 
will  assist  you  as  long  as  we  have  breath  in  our  bodies.' 
These  kind  and  affectionate  words  they  uttered,  as  I 
firmly  believe,  in  a  persuasion  that  I  was  upon  the  point 
of  expiring.  I  went  directly  to  examine  the  furnace,  and 
saw  all  the  metal  in  it  concreted.  I  thereupon  ordered 
two  of  the  helpers  to  step  over  the  way  to  a  butcher  for 
a  load  of  young  oak  which  had  been  above  a  year  drying, 
which  had  been  already  offered  to  me. 

"  Upon  his  bringing  me  the  first  bundles  of  it,  I  began 
to  fill  the  grate.  This  sort  of  oak  makes  a  brisker  fire 
than  any  other  wood  whatever;  but  the  wood  of  elder- 
trees  and  pine-trees  is  used  in  casting  artillery,  because 
it  makes  a  mild  and  gentle  fire.  As  soon  as  the  con- 
creted metal  felt  the  power  of  this  violent  fire,  it  began 
to  brighten  and  glitter.  In  another  quarter  I  made  them 
hurry  the  tubes  with  all  possible  expedition,  and  sent 
some  of  them  to  the  roof  of  the  house  to  take  care  of  the 
fire,  which  through  the  great  violence  of  the  wind  had 
acquired  new  force  ;  and  towards  the  garden  I  had  caused 
some  tables  with  pieces  of  tapestry  and  old  clothes  to  be 
placed  in  order  to  shelter  me  from  the  rain.  As  soon  as 
I  had  applied  the  proper  remedy  to  each  evil,  I  with  a 


7  8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

loud  voice  cried  out  to  my  men  to  bestir  themselves  and 
lend  a  helping  hand ;  so  that  when  they  saw  that  the  con- 
creted metal  began  to  melt  again,  the  whole  body  obeyed 
me  with  such  zeal  and  alacrity  that  every  man  did  the 
work  of  three.  Then  I  caused  a  mass  of  pewter  weighing 
about  sixty  pounds  to  be  thrown  upon  the  metal  in  the 
furnace,  which,  with  the  other  helps,  as  the  brisk  wood- 
fire,  and  stirring  it  sometimes  with  iron  and  sometimes 
with  long  poles,  soon  became  completely  dissolved. 
Finding  that,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  my  ignorant 
assistants,  I  had  effected  what  seemed  as  difficult  to 
raise  as  the  dead,  I  recovered  my  vigor  to  such  a  degree 
that  I  no  longer  perceived  whether  I  had  any  fever,  nor 
had  I  the  least  apprehension  of  death. 

"  Suddenly  a  loud  noise  was  heard,  and  a  glittering 
of  fire  flashed  before  our  eyes,  as  if  it  had  been  the  dart- 
ing of  a  thunderbolt.  Upon  the  appearance  of  this  ex- 
traordinary phenomenon  terror  seized  upon  all  present, 
and  none  more  than  myself.  This  tremendous  noise 
being  over,  we  began  to  stare  at  each  other,  and  per- 
ceived that  the  cover  of  the  furnace  had  burst  and  flown 
off,  so  that  the  bronze  began  to  run. 

"  I  immediately  caused  the  mouths  of  my  mould  to  be 
opened ;  but,  finding  that  the  metal  did  not  run  with  its 
usual  velocity,  and  apprehending  that  the  cause  of  it  was 
that  the  fusibility  of  the  metal  was  injured  by  the  violence 
of  the  fire,  I  ordered  all  my  dishes  and  porringers, 
which  were  in  number  about  two  hundred,  to  be  placed 
one  by  one  before  my  tubes,  and  part  of  them  to  be 
thrown  into  the  furnace ;  upon  which  all  present  per- 
ceived that  my  mould  was  filling  :  they  now  with  joy  and 
alacrity  assisted  and  obeyed  me.  I,  for  my  part,  was 
sometimes  in  one  place,  sometimes  in  another,  giving 


VICTORY.  79 

my  directions  and  assisting  my  men,  before  whom  I  of- 
fered up  this  prayer :  '  O  God,  I  address  myself  to  thee. 
I  acknowledge  in  gratitude  this  mercy,  that  my  mould 
has  been  filled.  I  fall  prostrate  before  thee,  and  with  my 
whole  heart  return  thanks  to  thy  divine  majesty.' 

"  My  prayer  being  over,  I  took  a  plate  of  meat  which 
stood  upon  a  little  bench,  and  ate  with  a  great  appetite. 
I  then  drank  with  all  my  journeymen  and  assistants,  and 
went  joyful  and  in  good  health  to  bed ;  for  there  were  still 
two  hours  of  night,  and  I  rested  as  well  as  if  I  had  been 
troubled  with  no  disorder. 

"  My  good  housekeeper,  without  my  having  given  any 
orders,  had  provided  a  good  capon  for  my  dinner.  When 
I  arose,  which  was  not  till  about  noon,  she  accosted  me  in 
high  spirits,  and  said  merrily, '  Is  this  the  man  that  thought 
himself  dying?  It  is  my  firm  belief  that  the  cuffs  and 
kicks  you  gave  us  last  night  when  you  were  quite  frantic 
and  possessed,  frightened  away  your  fever,  which,  appre- 
hending you  should  fall  upon  it  in  the  same  manner,  took 
to  flight.'  So  my  whole  poor  family,  having  got  over  such 
panics  and  hardships,  without  delay  procured  earthen  ves- 
sels to  supply  the  place  of  the  pewter  dishes  and  porrin- 
gers, and  we  all  dined  together  very  cheerfully ;  indeed, 
I  do  not  remember  having  ever  in  my  life  eaten  a  meal 
with  greater  satisfaction  or  a  better  appetite.  After  din- 
ner, all  those  who  had  assisted  me  in  my  work  came  and 
congratulated  me  upon  what  had  happened,  returned 
thanks  to  the  Divine  Being  for  having  interposed  so  merci- 
fully in  our  behalf,  and  declared  that  they  had  in  theory  and 
practice  learnt  such  things  as  were  judged  impossible  by 
other  masters.  I  thereupon  thought  it  allowable  to  boast  a 
little  of  my  knowledge  and  skill  in  this  fine  art,  and,  pull- 
ing out  my  purse,  satisfied  all  my  workmen  for  their  labor. 


8O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

"  Having  left  my  work  to  cool  during  two  days  after  it 
was  cast,  I  began  gradually  to  uncover  it.  I  first  of  all 
found  the  Medusa's  head,  which  had  come  out  admirably 
by  the  assistance  of  the  vents.  I  proceeded  to  uncover 
the  rest,  and  found  that  the  other  head  —  I  mean  that  of 
Perseus  — was  likewise  come  out  perfectly  well.  I  went 
on  uncovering  it  with  great  success,  and  found  every  part 
turn  out  to  admiration,  till  I  reached  the  foot  of  the 
right  leg,  which  supports  the  figure.  I  found  that  not  only 
the  toes  were  wanting,  but  part  of  the  foot  itself,  so  that 
there  was  almost  one  half  deficient.  This  occasioned  me 
some  new  trouble ;  but  I  was  not  displeased  at  it,  as  I 
had  expected  this  very  thing. 

"  It  pleased  God  that  as  soon  as  ever  my  work,  although 
still  unfinished,  was  seen  by  the  populace,  they  set  up  so 
loud  a  shout  of  applause,  that  I  began  to  be  somewhat 
comforted  for  the  mortifications  I  had  undergone ;  and 
there  were  sonnets  in  my  praise  every  day  upon  the  gate, 
the  language  of  which  was  extremely  elegant  and  poetical. 
The  very  day  on  which  I  exhibited  my  work,  there  were 
above  twenty  sonnets  set  up,  containing  the  most  hyper- 
bolical praises  of  it.  Even  after  I  had  covered  it  again, 
every  day  a  number  of  verses,  with  Latin  odes  and  Greek 
poems,  were  published  on  the  occasion,  —  for  it  was  then 
vacation  at  the  University  of  Pisa,  and  all  the  learned  men 
and  scholars  belonging  to  that  place  vied  with  each  other 
in  writing  encomiums  on  my  performance.  But  what  gave 
me  the  highest  satisfaction  was  that  even  those  of  the  pro- 
fession —  I  mean  statuaries  and  painters  —  emulated  each 
other  in  commending  me.  In  fact,  I  was  so  highly  praised, 
and  in  so  elegant  a  style,  that  it  afforded  me  some  allevi- 
ation for  my  past  mortification  and  troubles,  and  I  made 
all  the  haste  I  could  to  put  the  last  hand  to  my  statue. 


CELLINI'S  DEATH.  8 1 

• 

"  At  last,  as  it  pleased  the  Almighty,  I  completely  fin- 
ished my  work,  and  on  a  Thursday  morning  exhibited  it 
fully.  Just  before  the  break  of  day  so  great  a  crowd  gath- 
ered about  it,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  me  to  give 
the  reader  an  idea  of  their  number ;  and  they  all  seemed 
to  vie  with  each  other  who  should  praise  it  most.  The 
duke  stood  at  a  lower  window  of  the  palace,  just  over  the 
gate,  and,  being  half  concealed  within  side,  heard  all  that 
was  said  concerning  the  work.  After  he  had  listened  sev- 
eral hours,  he  left  the  window  highly  pleased,  and  sent 
me  this  message  :  '  Go  to  Benvenuto,  and  tell  him  from 
me  that  he  has  given  me  higher  satisfaction  than  I  ever 
expected.  Let  him  know  at  the  same  time  that  I  shall 
reward  him  in  such  a  manner  as  will  excite  his  surprise.'  " 


The  manuscript  of  Benvenuto's  Life  is  not  carried  much 
farther.  The  narrative  breaks  off  abruptly  in  1562,  when 
Cellini  was  in  the  sixty-second  year  of  his  age.  He  does 
not  appear  from  this  time  to  have  been  engaged  in  any 
work  of  much  importance.  After  the  execution  of  his 
grand  achievement  of  the  Perseus,  the  narrative  of  his  life 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  successful  of  all  the  labors 
of  his  declining  years. 

On  the  1 5th  day  of  February,  1570,  this  extraordinary 
man  died.  He  was  buried,  by  his  own  direction,  with  great 
funeral  pomp.  A  monk  who  had  been  charged  to  com- 
pose the  funeral  sermon,  in  praise  both  of  his  life  and 
works  and  of  his  excellent  moral  qualities,  mounted  the 
pulpit  and  delivered  a  discourse  which  was  highly  approved 
by  the  whole  academy  and  by  the  people.  They  struggled 
to  enter  .the  chapter,  as  well  to  see  the  body  of  Benve- 
nuto as  to  hear  the  commendation  of  his  good  qualities. 

6 


V. 

BERNARD   PALISSY. 

'"PWO  or  three  of  the  girls  had  dabbled  a  little  in  paint- 
•*•  ing  on  porcelain,  and  several  of  them  had  become  in- 
terested in  various  sorts  of  pottery.  Mabel  had  been  at 
Newburyport,  on  a  visit  with  some  friends  who  had  a  pot- 
ter's wheel  of  their  own ;  and  she  had  turned  for  herself, 
and  had  had  baked,  some  vases  and  dishes  which  she 
had  brought  home  with  her. 

This  tempted  them  all  to  make  a  party,  in  which  sev- 
eral of  the  boys  joined,  to  go  to  the  Art  Museum  and  see 
the  exquisite  pottery  there,  of  different  sorts,  ancient  and 
modern.  There  they  met  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  a 
large  firm  of  dealers  in  keramics ;  and  he  asked  them  to 
go  through  their  magnificent  establishment,  and  see  the 
collection,  which  is  one  of  great  beauty.  It  shows  sev- 
eral of  the  finest  styles  of  manufacture  in  very  choice 
specimens. 

This  prepared  them  to  see  Japanese  work.  And  when 
Uncle  Fritz  heard  of  this,  he  asked  Professor  Morse,  of 
Salem,  if  he  would  show  them  his  marvellous  collection  of 
Japanese  pottery.  Professor  Morse  lived  in  Japan  under 
very  favorable  auspices,  and  he  made  there  a  wonderful 
collection  of  the  work  of  the  very  best  artists.  So  five  or 
six  of  the  young  people  went  down  to  Salem,  at  his  very 
kind  invitation,  and  saw  there  what  is  one  of  the  finest 
collections  in  the  world. 


BERNARD  PALISSY.  83 

All  this  interested  them  in  what  now  receives  a  great 
deal  of  attention,  the  manufacture  and  ornament  of  pot- 
tery. The  word  keramics  is  a  word  recently  added  to  the 
English  language  to  express  the  art  of  making  pottery  and 
of  ornamenting  it. 

When  Uncle  Fritz  found  that  they  really  wanted  to 
know  about  such  things,  he  arranged  that  for  one  after- 
noon they  should  .read  about 


BERNARD    PALISSY   THE   POTTER. 

Bernard  Palissy  was  born,  about  1510,  in  the  little  town 
of  Biron,  in  Perigord,  France.  He  became  not  only  a 
great  artist,  but  a  learned  physician,  and  a  writer  of  merit. 

Born  of  poor  parents  of  the  working-class,  he  had  to 
learn  some  trade,  and  early  applied  himself  to  working 
glass,  not  as  a  glazier,  but  staining  it  and  cutting  it  up  in 
little  bits,  to  be  joined  together  with  lead  for  the  colored 
windows  so  much  used  in  churches.  This  was  purely 
mechanical  work  ;  but  Bernard's  ambition  led  him  to  study 
drawing  and  color,  that  he  might  himself  design  and 
execute,  in  glass,  scenes  from  the  Bible  and  lives  of  the 
saints,  such  as  he  saw  done  by  his  superiors. 

When  he  was  old  enough,  curious  to  see  the  world  and 
learn  new  things,  he  took  a  journey  on  foot  through  sev- 
eral provinces  of  France,  by  observation  thus  supplying  the 
defects  of  his  early  education,  and  reaping  a  rich  harvest 
of  facts  and  ideas,  which  developed  the  qualities  of  his 
intelligence. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Renaissance  in  Art  was  mak- 
ing itself  felt  throughout  Europe.  Francis  I.  of  France 
encouraged  all  forms  of  good  work  by  his  patronage ; 


84  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

and  wherever  he  went  the  young  Palissy  was  animated 
and  inspired  by  the  sight  of  beautiful  things. 

Faience,  an  elegant  kind  of  pottery,  attracted  his  atten- 
tion. This  appeared  first  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
Arabs  had  long  known  the  art  of  making  tiles  of  clay, 
enamelled  and  richly  ornamented.  They  brought  it  into 
Spain,  as  is  shown  in  the  decorations  of  the  Alhambra  at 
Seville  and  elsewhere.  Lucca  della  Robbia  in  Italy  first 
brought  the  art  to  perfection,  by  making  figures  and 
groups  of  figures  in  high  relief,  of  baked  clay  covered 
with  shining  enamel,  white,  tinted  with  various  colors. 
The  kind  of  work  called  majolica  differed  from  the  earlier 
faience  by  some  changes  in  the  material  used  for  the 
enamel.  In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  remark- 
able historical  paintings  were  executed  in  faience,  upon 
huge  plaques.  All  the  cities  of  Italy  vied  with  each  other 
in  producing  wonders  in  this  sort  of  work ;  it  is  from  one 
of  them,  Faenza,  that  it  takes  its  name.  The  method 
of  making  the  enamel  was  a  deep  secret ;  but  Bernard 
Palissy,  with  long  patience  and  after  many  failures,  suc- 
ceeded in  discovering  it,  —  or,  rather,  in  inventing  for 
himself  a  new  method,  which  in  some  respects  excelled 
the  old. 

Palissy  was  the  author  of  several  essays,  or  "  Dis- 
courses ; "  and  from  one  of  these,  written  in  quaint  old 
French,  we  have  his  own  account  of  his  invention. 

He  married  and  settled  down  in  the  year  1539  with 
a  good  income  from  his  intelligent  industry.  He  had  a 
pleasant  little  house  in  the  country,  where,  as  he  says,  "  I 
could  rejoice  in  the  sight  of  green  hills,  where  were  feed- 
ing and  gambolling  lambs,  sheep,  and  goats." 

An  incident,  apparently  slight,  disturbed  this  placid  do- 
mestic happiness.  He  came  across  a  cup  of  enamelled 


ENAMEL.  85 

pottery,  doubtless  from  Italy.  "This  cup,"  he  says,  "was 
of  such  beauty,  that,  from  the  moment  I  saw  it,  I  entered 
into  a  dispute  with  myself  as  to  how  it  could  have  been 
made." 

Enamel  is  nothing  more  than  a  kind  of  glaze  colored 
with  metallic  acids,  and  rendered  opaque  by  the  mixture 
of  a  certain  quantity  of  tin.  It  is  usually  spread  upon 
metal,  when  only  it  is  properly  called  enamel ;  but  this 
glaze  can  also  be  put  upon  earthenware.  It  makes 
vessels  water-tight,  and  gives  them  brilliancy  of  surface. 
To  find  out  how  to  do  this  was  to  make  a  revolution  in 
the  keramic  art. 

In  France,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  only  vessels, 
such  as  jugs  or  vases,  were  made  either  of  metal,  wood, 
or  coarse  porous  pottery,  through  which  water  could  pene- 
trate ;  like  the  goulehs  of  the  Arabs,  of  the  cantaras  of  the 
Moors,  which  are  still  used  for  fresh  water  to  advantage, 
since  the  evaporation  of  the  drops  keeps  the  water  cold. 

Many  attempts  had  been  made  to  imitate  the  beautiful 
and  costly  vases  of  China ;  but  no  one  succeeded  until  the 
potters  of  Italy  found  out  how  to  make  faience.  The 
discovery  was  hailed  as  a  most  valuable  one.  The  princes 
who  owned  the  works  guarded  their  secret  with  jealous 
care,  —  to  betray  it  would  have  been  punished  by  death ; 
so  that  Bernard  Palissy  had  no  hope  of  being  taught  how 
it  was  done,  even  if  he  should  go  to  the  places  in  Italy 
where  the  work  was  carried  on. 

"But,"  he  says,  "what  others  had  found  out,  I  might 
also  discover ;  and  if  I  could  once  make  myself  master  of 
the  art  of  glazing,  I  felt  sure  I  could  elevate  pottery  to  a 
degree  of  perfection  as  yet  unknown.  What  a  glory  for 
my 'name,  what  a  benefit  to  France,  if  I  could  establish 
this  industry  here  in  my  own  land  !  " 


86  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

He  turned  and  turned  the  cup  in  his  fingers,  admiring 
the  brilliant  surface.  "  Yes,"  he  said  at  last ;  "  it  shall  be 
so,  for  I  choose  !  I  have  already  studied  the  subject. 
I  will  work  still  harder,  and  reach  my  aim  at  last." 

Exceptional  determination  of  character  was  needed  for 
such  an  object.  Palissy  knew  nothing  about  the  compo- 
nent parts  of  enamels ;  he  had  never  even  seen  the  pro- 
cess of  baking  clay,  and  he  had  to  begin  with  the  very 
simplest  investigations.  To  study  the  different  kinds  of 
earth  and  clay,  to  acquire  the  arts  of  moulding  and  turn- 
ing, and  to  gain  some  knowledge  of  chemistry,  all  these 
were  necessary.  But  he  did  not  flinch,  and  pursued  his 
idea  with  indomitable  perseverance. 

"  Moving  only  by  chance,"  he  says,  "like  a  man  grop- 
ing in  the  dark,  I  made  a  collection  of  all  the  different 
substances  which  s*eemed  at  all  likely  to  make  enamel, 
and  I  pounded  them  up  fine  ;  then  I  bought  earthen 
pots,  broke  them  into  small  bits,  numbered  these  pieces, 
and  spread  over  each  of  them  a  different  combination  of 
materials.  Now  I  had  to  have  a  furnace  in  which  to  bake 
my  experiments.  I  had  no  idea  how  furnaces  were  usu- 
ally made ;  so  I  invented  one  of  my  own,  and  set  it  up. 
But  I  had  no  idea  how  much  heat  was  required  to  melt 
enamels,  —  perhaps  I  heated  my  furnace  too  much,  per- 
haps not  enough;  sometimes  my  ingredients  were  all 
burned  up,  sometimes  they  melted  not  at  all ;  or  else  some 
were  turned  to  coal,  while  others  remained  undisturbed 
by  the  action  of  the  fire." 

Meanwhile  the  resources  of  the  unlucky  workman  were 
fast  diminishing  ;  for  he  had  abandoned  his  usual  work,  by 
which  he  earned  his  living,  and  kept  making  new  furnaces, 
"  with  great  expense  and  trouble,  and  a  great  consumption 
of  time  and  firewood." 


FAILURES.  87 

This  state  of  affairs  much  displeased  his  wife,  who  com- 
plained bitterly,  and  tried  to  divert  her  husband  from  an 
occupation  which  earned  for  him  nothing  but  disappoint- 
ment. The  cheerful  little  household  changed  its  aspect ; 
the  children  were  no  longer  well-dressed,  and  the  shabby 
furniture  and  empty  cupboards  betrayed  the  decay  which 
was  falling  upon  the  family.  The  father  saw  with  pro- 
found grief  the  wants  of  his  household ;  but  success 
seemed  ever  so  near  to  him,  that  he  could  not  bear  to  give 
it  up.  His  hope  at  that  time  was  but  a  mirage  ;  and  for 
long  afterwards,  in  this  struggle  between  intelligence  and 
the  antagonism  of  material  things,  ill  fortune  kept  the 
upper  hand. 

One  day,  tired  out  by  his  failures,  it  occurred  to  him 
that  a  man  brought  up  to  baking  pottery  would  know 
how  to  bake  his  specimens  better  than  he  could. 

"  I  covered  three  or  four  hundred  bits  of  broken  vase 
with  different  compounds,  and  sent  them  to  a  fabrique 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  my  house.  The  potters 
consented  to  put  my  patterns  with  their  batch  for  the  oven. 
Full  of  impatience,  I  awaited  the  result  of  this  experi- 
ment. I  was  on  hand  when  my  specimens  came  out.  I 
looked  them  anxiously  all  over ;  not  one  was  successful ! 

"  The  heat  had  not  been  strong  enough,  but  I  did  not 
know  this ;  I  saw  only  one  more  useless  expense  of 
money.  One  of  the  workmen  came  to  me  and  said, '  You 
will  never  make  anything  out  of  this ;  you  had  better  go 
back  to  your  own  business.'  " 

Palissy  shook  his  head ;  he  had  still  in  his  possession 
some  few  valuable  articles,  souvenirs  of  happier  days, 
which  he  could  sell  to  renew  his  experiments.  In  spite 
of  the  reproaches  of  his  wife,  he  bought  more  ingredients 
and  more  earthenware,  and  made  new  combinations. 


88  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

Failure  again  !  However,  he  would  not  be  beaten. 
Some  friends  lent  him  a  little  money ;  he  sat  up  at  night 
to  make  new  mixtures  of  different  substances,  all  prepared 
with  such  care  that  he  felt  sure  some  of  them  must  be 
good.  Then  he  carried  them  again  to  the  potters,  whom 
he  urged  to  the  greatest  care.  They  only  shrugged  their 
shoulders,  and  called  him  "  crack  brain ; "  and  when  the 
batch  was  done,  they  brought  the  results  to  Palissy  with 
jeers.  Some  of  the  pieces  were  dirty  white  ;  others  green, 
red,  or  smoked  by  the  fire ;  but  all  alike  in  being  dull 
and  worthless. 

It  was  over.  Discouragement  took  possession  of  Pa- 
lissy. "I  returned  home,"  he  says,  "full  of  confusion 
and  sadness.  Others  might  seek  the  secret  of  enamels. 
I  must  set  to  work  and  earn  money  to  pay  my  debts 
and  get  bread  for  the  family." 

Most  luckily  for  him  at  this  time,  a  task  was  given  him 
by  government,  for  which  he  was  well  suited,  and  which 
brought  him  good  pay.  The  king,  Francis  I.,  having 
had,  like  many  another  sovereign,  some  difficulty  with  his 
faithful  subjects  in  the  matter  of  imposts,  now  found  it 
necessary  to  make  a  new  regulation  of  taxes ;  and  for  this, 
among  other  things,  an  inspection  of  the  salt  marshes  on 
the  coasts  of  France  was  needed,  in  order  to  name  the 
right  sums  for  taxation,  and  a  knowledge  of  arithmetic 
was  required  as  well.  Palissy  was  appointed  ;  and  to  the 
great  delight  of  his  family,  who  thought  that  his  mind 
would  now  be  forever  diverted  from  the  search  for  enamel, 
he  set  forth  to  explore  the  islands  and  the  shores  of  France. 
He  drew  admirable  outlines  of  the  forms  of  the  salt  marshes, 
and  wrote  with  eloquence  upon  the  sublimity  of  the  sea. 

Ease  and  comfort  came  back.  His  task  was  ended ; 
but  debts  were  paid,  and  plenty  of  money  remained. 


NEW  EXPERIMENTS.  89 

The  first  thing  he  saw  on  returning  home,  alas  !  was  the 
cup,  —  his  joy  and  despair.  "  How  beautiful  it  is!  how 
brilliant  ! "  he  exclaimed ;  and  once  more  he  threw  him- 
self into  the  pursuit  of  the  elusive  enamel. 

It  was  easy  to  see  that  the  so  much  admired  faience  of 
Italy  was  simply  common  baked  clay,  covered  with  some 
substance  glazed  by  heat,  but  so  composed  as  to  adhere 
to  the  surface  after  it  had  cooled.  But  what  substance  ? 
He  had  tried  all  sorts  of  materials ;  why  had  none  of 
them  melted?  Palissy  at  length  decided  that  the  fault 
had  been  in  using  the  common  potter's  furnace.  Since 
the  materials  were  to  be  vitrified  by  the  process,  they 
should  be  baked  like  glass.  He  Hroke  up  three  dozen 
pots,  pounded  up  a  great  quantity  of  different  ingredients, 
and  spread  them  with  a  brush  on  the  fragments ;  then  he 
carried  them  to  the  nearest  glass-works.  He  was  allowed 
to  superintend  the  baking  himself;  he  put  the  specimens 
in  the  oven,  and  passed  the  night  attending  the  fire.  In 
the  morning  he  took  them  out.  "  Oh,  joy  !  Some  of  the 
compounds  had  begun  to  melt ;  there  was  no  perfect 
glaze,  only  a  sign  that  I  was  on  the  right  road." 

It  was,  however,  still  a  long  and  weary  one.  After  two 
more  years,  Palissy  was  still  far  from  the  discovery  of  en- 
amelling, but  during  this  time  he  was  acquiring  much 
knowledge.  From  a  simple  workman  he  had  become  a 
learned  chemist.  He  says  himself,  "  The  mistakes  I  made 
in  combining  my  enamels  taught  me  more  than  the  things 
which  came  right  of  themselves." 

There  cam^  a  time,  which  he  had  once  more  resolved 
should  be  the  last,  when  he  repaired  to  the  glass-works, 
accompanied  by  a  man  loaded  with  more  than  three  hun- 
dred different  patterns  on  bits  of  pottery.  For  four  hours 
Bernard  gloomily  watched  the  progress  of  baking.  Sud- 


90  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

denly  he  started  in  surprise.  Did  his  eyes  deceive  him  ? 
No  !  it  was  no  illusion.  One  of  the  pieces  in  the  furnace 
was  covered  with  a  brilliant  glazing,  white,  polished,  ex- 
cellent. Palissy's  joy  was  immense.  "  I  thought  I  had 
become  a  new  creature,"  he  says.  "The  enamel  was 
found  ;  France  enriched  by  a  new  discovery." 

Palissy  now  hastened  to  undertake  a  whole  vase.  For 
many  and  large  pieces  there  was  not  room  enough  at  his 
disposition  in  the  ovens  of  the  glass-works.  He  did  not 
worry  about  that,  for  he  was  quite  sure  he  could  con- 
struct one  of  his  own.  He  decided,  too,  at  once  to 
model  and  fashion  his  own  vases ;  for  those  which  he 
bought  of  the  potters,  made  of  coarse  and  heavy  forms, 
no  longer  suited  his  ambition.  He  now  designed  forms, 
turned  and  modelled  them  himself.  Thus  passed  seven 
or  eight  months.  At  last  his  vases  were  done,  and  he 
admired  with  pride  the  pure  forms  given  to  the  clay  by 
his  hands.  But  his  money  was  giving  out  again,  and  his 
furnace  was  not  yet  built.  As  he  had  nothing  to  pay  for 
the  work,  he  did  all  the  work  himself,  —  went  after  bricks 
and  brought  them  himself  on  his  back,  and  then  built  and 
plastered  with  his  own  hands.  The  neighbors  looked  on 
in  pity  and  ridicule.  "  Look,"  they  said,  "  at  Master 
Bernard  !  He  might  live  at  his  ease,  and  yet  he  makes 
a  beast  of  burden  of  himself !  " 

Palissy  minded  their  sarcasms  not  at  all.  His  furnace 
was  finished  in  good  time,  and  the  first  baking  of  the  clay 
succeeded  perfectly.  Now  the  pottery  was  to  be  covered 
with  his  new  enamel.  Time  pressed,  for  in  a  few  days 
there  would  be  no  more  bread  in  the  house  for  his  chil- 
dren. For  a  long  time  he  had  been  living  on  credit,  but 
now  the  butcher  and  baker  refused  to  furnish  anything 
more.  All  about  him  he  saw  only  unfriendly  faces  ;  every 


PALISSY' S   TRIALS.  gi 

one  treated  him  as  a  fool.  "  Let  him  die  of  hunger," 
they  said,  "  since  he  will  not  listen  to  reason." 

His  wife  was  the  worst  of  all.  She  failed  to  see  any 
heroism  in  the  obstinacy  or  perseverance  of  her  hus- 
band, —  no  wonder,  perhaps,  with  the  sight  of  her  suffering 
children  before  her  eyes.  She  went  about  reciting  her 
misfortunes  to  all  the  neighborhood,  very  unwisely,  as  she 
thus  ruined  the  credit  of  her  husband,  his  last  and  only 
resource. 

Palissy  was  already  worn  out  by  so  much  manual  la- 
bor, to  which  he  was  little  accustomed  ;  nevertheless,  he 
worked  by  night,  and  all  night  long,  to  pound  up  and 
prepare  the  materials  for  his  white  enamel,  and  to  spread 
it  upon  his  vases.  A  report  went  abroad,  caused  by  the 
sight  of  his  lamp  constantly  burning,  that  he  was  trying 
to  coin  counterfeit  money.  He  was  suspected,  despised, 
and  avoided,  and  went  about  the  streets  hanging  his  head 
because  he  had  no  answer  to  make  to  his  accusers. 

The  moment  which  was  to  decide  his  life  arrived.  The 
vases  were  placed  in  the  furnace,  and  for  six  continuous 
days  and  nights  he  plied  the  glowing  fire  with  fuel.  The 
heat  was  intolerable ;  but  the  enamel  resisted,  nothing 
would  melt,  and  he  was  forced  to  recognize  that  there 
was  too  little  of  the  glazing  substance  in  the  combination 
to  vitrify  the  others.  He  set  to  work  to  mix  another 
compound,  but  his  vases  were  spoiled ;  he  borrowed  a 
few  common  ones  from  the  pottery.  During  all  this 
delay  he  did  not  dare  to  let  the  fire  go  out,  it  would  take 
so  much  wood  to  start  it  again.  Once  more  the  newly 
covered  pots  were  placed  in  the  intense  furnace  ;  in  three 
or  four  hours  the  test  would  be  completed.  Palissy  per- 
ceived with  terror  that  his  fuel  was  giving  out.  He  ran 
to  his  garden,  tore  up  fences,  and  cut  down  trees  which 


92  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

he  had  planted  himself,  and  threw  all  these  into  the  two 
yawning  mouths  of  the  furnace.  Not  enough  !  He  went 
into  the  house,  and  seized  tables,  chairs,  and  bureaus  ;  but 
the  house  was  but  poorly  furnished,  and  contained  but 
little  to  feed  the  flames.  Palissy  returned.  The  rooms 
were  empty,  there  was  absolutely  nothing  more  to  take ; 
then  he  fell  to  pulling  up  the  planks  of  the  floor.  His 
wife,  frightened  to  death,  stood  still  and  let  him  go  on. 
The  neighbors  ran  in,  at  the  sound  of  the  axe,  and  said, 
"  He  must  be  a  fool !  " 

But  soon  pity  changed  to  admiration.  When  Palissy 
took  the  vases  from  the  furnace,  the  common  pots  which 
all  had  seen  before  dull  and  coarse,  were  of  a  clear  pearly 
white,  covered  with  brilliant  polish. 

So  much  emotion  and  fatigue  had  told  upon  the  robust 
constitution  of  Palissy.  "  I  was,"  he  says,  "  all  used  up 
and  dried  up  on  account  of  such  toil,  and  the  heat  of  the 
furnace.  It  was  more  than  a  month  since  I  had  had  a 
dry  shirt  on  my  body,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  had  reached  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre." 

In  spite  of  the  success  which  he  had  now  attained,  our 
potter  had  by  no  means  reached  the  end  of  his  misfor- 
tunes. He  sold  his  vases,  but  could  not  get  much  for 
them,  as  there  were  but  a  few,  of  poor  shapes  ;  for  those 
which  he  had  modelled  himself  had  all  failed  to  take  the 
enamel,  and  the  successful  ones  were  only  common  things, 
bought  on  credit.  The  small isum  which  he  got  by  selling 
them  was  not  enough  by  any  means  to  cover  his  expenses, 
pay  his  debts,  and  restore  order  to  the  house  from  which 
pretty  much  everything  was  burned  up  for  firewood  in 
his  furnace. 

However,  he  was  supported  and  happy  in  the  thought 
of  his  success.  He  said  to  himself :  "  Why  be  sad,  when 


ONCE  MORE.  93 

you  have  found  what  you  were  seeking  for?  Go  on 
working,  and  you  will  put  your  enemies  to  shame." 

Once  more  he  succeeded  in  borrowing  a  little  money. 
He  hired  a  man  to  help  him ;  and  for  want  of  funds,  he 
paid  this  man  by  giving  him  all  his  own  good  clothes, 
while  he  went  himself  in  rags.  The  furnace  he  had  made 
was  coming  to  pieces  on  account  of  the  intense  heat  he 
had  maintained  in  it  for  six  days  and  nights  during  his 
last  experiment.  He  pulled  it  to  pieces  with  his  own 
hands,  working  with  fingers  bleeding  and  bound  up  in 
bandages.  Then  he  fetched  water,  sand,  lime,  and  stone, 
and  built  by  himself  a  new  furnace,  "  without  any  help  or 
any  repose.  A  feverish  resolution  doubled  my  strength, 
and  made  me  capable  of  doing'  things  which  I  should 
have  imagined  impossible." 

This  time  the  oven  heats  admirably,  the  enamels  ap- 
pear to  be  melting.  Palissy  goes  to  rest,  and  dreams  of 
his  new  vases,  which  must  bring  enough  to  pay  all  his 
debts ;  his  impatient  creditors  come  in  the  morning  to 
see  the  things  taken  from  the  furnace.  Palissy  receives 
them  joyfully ;  he  would  like  to  invite  the  whole  town. 

When  the  pieces  came  out  of  the  oven,  they  were 
shining  and  beautiful ;  but  —  always  but !  —  an  accident 
had  deprived  them  of  all  value.  Little  stones,  which 
formed  a  part  of  the  mortar  with  which  the  furnace  was 
built,  had  burst  with  the  heat,  and  spattered  the  enamel 
all  over  with  sharp  fragments  cutting  like  a  razor,  entirely 
spoiling  it  of  course.  Still,  the  vases  were  so  lovely  in 
form,  and  the  glaze  was  so  beautiful,  that  several  people 
offered  to  buy  them  if  they  could  have  them  cheap.  This 
the  proud  potter  would  not  bear.  Seizing  the  vases,  he 
dashed  them  to  the  ground  ;  then  utterly  worn  out,  he 
went  into  the  house  and  threw  himself  on  the  bed.  His 


94  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

wife  followed  him,  and  covered  him  with  reproaches  for  thus 
wasting  the  chance  of  making  a  few  francs  for  the  family. 
Soon  he  recovered  his  elasticity,  reflecting  "  that  a  man 
who  has  tumbled  into  a  ditch  has  but  one  duty,  and  that 
is  to  try  to  get  out  of  it." 

He  now  set  to  work  at  his  old  business  of  painting 
upon  glass,  and  after  several  months  had  earned  enough 
to  start  another  batch  of  vases.  Of  these,  two  or  three 
were  successful  and  sold  to  advantage ;  the  rest  were 
spoiled  by  ashes  which  fell  upon  the  enamel  in  the  furnace 
while  it  was  soft.  He  therefore  invented  what  he  called 
a  "  lantern  "  of  baked  clay,  to  put  over  the  vases  to  pro- 
tect them  in  baking.  This  expedient  proved  so  good 
that  it  is  still  used. 

The  enamel  once  discovered,  it  would  be  supposed 
that  all  trouble  was  over ;  but  it  is  not  enough  to  invent 
a  process,  —  to  carry  it  out,  all  sorts  of  little  things  have 
to  be  considered,  the  least  of  which,  if  not  attended  to,  may 
spoil  all  the  rest.  These  multiplied  accidents,  with  all  the 
privations  and  sufferings  he  had  undergone,  were  attacking 
the  health  of  Palissy.  He  says  in  his  simple  style,  — 

"  I  was  so  used  up  in  my  person,  that  there  was  no 
shape  or  appearance  of  curve  on  my  arms  or  legs  ;  my  so- 
called  legs,  indeed,  were  but  a  straight  line,  so  that  when 
I  had  gartered  my  stockings,  as  soon  as  I  began  to  walk, 
they  were  down  on  my  heels." 

His  enamelled  pottery  now  began  to  make  a  living  for 
its  inventor,  but  so  poor  a  living  that  many  things  were 
wanting,  —  for  instance,  a  suitable  workshop.  For  five  or 
six  years  he  carried  on  the  work  in  the  open  air ;  either 
heat,  rain,  or  cold  spoiled  many  of  his  vases,  while  he  him- 
self, exposed  to  the  weather,  "  passed  whole  nights  at  the 
mercy  of  rain  and  cold,  without  any  aid,  comfort,  or 


NATURE  IN  ART.  95 

companionship  except  that  of  owls  screeching  on  one  side 
and  dogs  howling  on  the  other.  Sometimes,"  he  continues, 
"  winds  and  tempests  blew  with  such  violence  inside  and 
outside  of  my  ovens,  that  I  was  obliged  to  leave,  with  a 
total  loss  of  all  they  contained.  Several  times  when  I  had 
thus  left  everything,  without  a  dry  rag  upon  me,  on  account 
of  the  rain,  I  came  in  at  midnight  or  daybreak  without  any 
light,  staggering  like  a  drunken  man,  all  broken  down  at 
the  thought  of  my  wasted  toil ;  and  then,  all  wet  and  dirty 
as  I  was,  I  found  in  my  bedroom  the  worst  affliction  of 
all,  which  makes  me  wonder  now  why  I  was  not  consumed 
by  grief."  He  means  the  scolding  and  reproaches  of  his 
wife. 

But  the  time  came  when  his  perseverance  was  rewarded, 
and  his  pottery  brought  him  the  fame  and  money  he  de- 
served. He  was  able  to  make  new  experiments,  and  add 
to  the  value  of  his  discovery.  Having  obtained  the  white 
enamel,  he  had  the  idea  of  tinting  it  with  all  sorts  of  colors, 
which  he  did  successfully.  He  then  began  to  decorate  his 
faience  with  objects  modelled  from  nature,  such  as  animals, 
shells,  leaves,  and  branches.  Lizards  of  a  bright  emerald 
color,  with  pointed  heads  and  slender  tails,  and  snakes 
gliding  between  stones  or  curled  upon  a  bank  of  moss, 
crabs,  frogs,  and  spiders,  all  of  their  natural  colors,  and 
disposed  in  the  midst  of  plants  equally  well  imitated,  are 
the  characteristic  details  of  the  work  of  Palissy. 

These  perfect  imitations  of  Nature  were  taken  actually 
from  Nature  herself.  Palissy  prepared  a  group  of  real 
leaves  and  stones,  putting  the  little  insects  or  animals  he 
wished  to  represent  in  natural  attitudes  amongst  them. 
He  fastened  these  reptiles,  fishes,  or  insects  in  their  places 
by  fine  threads,  and  then  made  a  mould  of  the  whole  in 
plaster  of  Paris.  When  it  was  done,  he  removed  the  little 


96  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

animals  from  the  mould  so  carefully  that  he  could  use 
them  over  and  over  again. 

Thus,  after  sixteen  years  passed  in  untiring  energy,  six- 
teen years  of  anxiety  and  privation,  the  artist  triumphed 
over  all  the  obstacles  opposed  to  his  genius.  The  humble 
potter,  despised  of  all,  became  the  most  important  man  in 
his  town.  His  productions  were  sought  for  eagerly,  and 
his  reputation  established  forever. 

His  life  henceforth  was  not  free  from  events,  but  these 
were  not  connected  with  his  invention.  His  fame  came  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  queen  mother  Catherine  de  Medicis ; 
for  Francis  I.  was  no  longer  living,  and  Charles  IX.  had 
succeeded  Francis  II.  upon  the  throne.  He  was  sum- 
moned to  Court,  and  employed  to  build  grottos,  deco- 
rated with  his  designs,  by  personages  of  distinction,  —  one 
especially  for  the  queen  herself,  which  he  describes  in  his 
Discourse  of  the  "Jardin  Delectable." 

He  was  in  Paris  at  the  time  of  the  terrible  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  where,  as  he  was  a  Huguenot,  he  would 
doubtless  have  perished  but  for  the  protection  of  the 
queen,  who  helped  him  to  escape  with  his  family. 

Later, 'however,  in  the  midst  of  the  troubles  and  terrors 
of  the  time,  he  was  thrown  into  the  Bastille ;  and  there  he 
died,  an  old  man  of  eighty  years. 


VI. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

"  T  X  7E  call  the  Americans  a  nation  of  inventors,"  said 
*  *  Fergus.  "  How  long  has  this  been  true  ?  " 

"That  is  a  very  curious  question,"  said  Uncle  Fritz. 
"  You  remember  we  were  talking  of  it  before.  When  I  go 
back  to  think  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Bunker 
Hill,  I  think  there  must  have  been  a  great  many  inglorious 
Miltons  hidden  away  in  the  New  England  towns.  Really, 
the  arts  advanced  very  little  between  1630  and  1775. 
Flint-locks  had  come  in,  instead  of  match-locks.  But, 
actually,  the  men  at  Bunker  Hill  rested  over  the  rail-fence 
old  muskets  which  had  been  used  in  Queen  Anne's  time  ; 
and  to  this  day  a  '  Queen's  arm '  is  a  provincial  phrase, 
in  New  England,  for  one  of  these  old  weapons,  not  yet 
forgotten.  That  inability  to  improve  its  own  condition 
comes  to  a  people  which  lets  another  nation  do  its  manu- 
facturing for  it.  You  see  much  the  same  thing  in  Turkey 
and  French  Canada.  Just  as  soon  as  they  were  thrown 
on  their  own  resources  here,  they  began  to  invent." 

"  But,"  said  Fergus,  "  there  was  certainly  one  great 
American  inventor  before  that  time." 

"  You  mean  Franklin,  —  the  greatest  American  yet,  I 
suppose,  if  you  mean  to  measure  greatness  by  intellectual 
power  and  intellectual  achievement.  Yes ;  Franklin's 
great  discovery,  and  the  inventions  which  followed  on  it, 

7 


98  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

were  made  twenty-five  years  and  more  before  Bunker 
Hill." 

"  What  is  the  association  between  Franklin  and  Robin- 
son Crusoe?"  asked  Alice.  "I  never  read  of  one  but 
I  think  of  the  other." 

Uncle  Fritz's  whole  face  beamed  with  approbation. 

"  You  have  started  me  upon  one  of  my  hobbies,"  said 
he  ;  "  but  I  must  not  ride  it  too  far.  Franklin  says  him- 
self that  De  Foe's '  Essay  on  Projects  '  and  Cotton  Mather's 
'  Essay  to  do  Good '  were  two  books  which  perhaps  gave 
him  a  turn  of  thinking  which  had  an  influence  on  some 
of  the  events  in  his  after  life.  And  you  may  notice  how 
an  '  Essay  on  Projects  '  might  start  his  passion  for  having 
things  done  better  than  in  the  ways  he  saw.  The  books 
that  he  was  brought  up  on  and  with  were  books  of 
De  Foe's  own  time,  —  none  of  them  more  popular  among 
reading  people  of  Boston  than  De  Foe's  own  books,  for 
De  Foe  was  a  great  light  among  their  friends  in  England. 

"  If  Robinson  Crusoe,  on  his  second  voyage,  which 
was  in  the  year  1718,  had  run  into  Boston  for  supplies, 
as  he  thought  of  doing;  and  if  old  Judge  Sewall  had 
asked  him  to  dinner,  —  as  he  would  have  been  likely 
to  do,  for  Robinson  was  a  godly  old  gentleman  then, 
of  intelligence  and  fortune,  —  if  there  had  been  by  ac- 
cident a  vacant  place  at  the  table  at  the  last  moment, 
Judge  Sewall  might  have  sent  round  to  Franklin's  father 
to  ask  him  to  come  in.  For  the  elder  Franklin,  though 
only  a  tallow-chandler,  —  and  only  Goodman  Franklin, 
not  Mr.  Franklin,  —  was  a  member  of  the  church,  well 
esteemed.  He  led  the  singing  at  the  Old  South  after 
Judge  Se wall's  voice  broke  down. 

"  Nay,  when  one  remembers  how  much  Sewall  had  to 
do  with  printing,  one  might  imagine  that  the  boy  Ben 


FKANKLIN  AND  DE  FOE.  99 

Franklin  should  wait  at  the  door  with  a  proof-sheet,  and 
even  take  off  his  boy's  hat  as  Robinson  Crusoe  came  in." 

Here  Bedford  Long  put  in  a  remark  :  — 

"There  are  things  in  Robinson  Crusoe's  accounts  of 
his  experiments  in  making  his  pipkins,  which  ought  to 
bring  him  into  any  book  of  American  inventors." 

"I  never  thought  before,"  said  Fergus,  "  that  De  Foe's 
experiences  in  making  tiles  and  tobacco-pipes  and  drain- 
pipes fitted  him  for  all  that  learned  discussion  of  glazing, 
when  Robinson  Crusoe  makes  his  pots  and  pans." 

"  Good  ! "  said  Uncle  Fritz  ;  "  that  must  be  so.  —  Well, 
as  you  say,  Alice,  there  are  whole  sentences  in  that  nar- 
rative which  you  could  suppose  Franklin  wrote,  and 
in  his  works  whole  sentences  which  would  fit  in  closely 
with  De  Foe's  writing.  The  style  of  the  younger  man 
very  closely  resembles  that  of  the  older." 

"  And  Franklin  would  have  been  very  much  pleased 
to  hear  you  say  so." 

"  He  was  forever  inventing,"  said  Uncle  Fritz.  "  As  I 
said,  he  was  worried  unless  things  could  be  better  done. 
If  he  was  in  a  storm,  he  wanted  to  still  the  waves.  If  the 
chimney  smoked,  he  wanted  to  make  a  better  fireplace. 
If  he  heard  a  girl  play  the  musical-glasses,  he  must  have 
and  make  a  better  set." 

"  And  if  the  house  was  struck  by  lightning,  he  went 
out  and  put  up  a  lightning-rod." 

"  He  had  a  little  book  by  which  people  should  make 
themselves  better  ;  for  he  rightly  considered  that  unless 
a  man  could  do  this,  he  could  make  no  other  improve- 
ment of  mudi  account." 

And  when  Uncle  Fritz  had  said  this,  he  found  the 
passage,  which  he  bade  John  read  to  them. 


IOO  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 


FRANKLIN'S   METHOD   OF  GROWING   BETTER. 

"  I  made  a  little  book  in  which  I  allotted  a  page  for 
each  of  the  virtues.  [He  had  classified  the  virtues  and 
made  a  list  of  thirteen,  which  will  be  named  below.]  I 
ruled  each  page  with  red  ink,  so  as  to  have  seven  columns, 
one  for  each  day  of  the  week,  marking  each  column  with 
a  letter  for  the  day.  I  crossed  these  columns  with  thir- 
teen red  lines,  marking  the  beginning  of  each  line  with 
the  first  letter  of  one  of  the  virtues,  on  which  line  and 
in  its  proper  column  I  might  mark,  by  a  little  black  spot, 
every  fault  I  found  upon  examination  to  have  been  com- 
mitted respecting  that  virtue  upon  that  day.  The  thirteen 
virtues  were:  i .  TEMPERANCE  ;  2.  SILENCE;  3.  ORDER; 
4.  RESOLUTION  ;  5 .  FRUGALITY  ;  6.  INDUSTRY  ;  7.  SIN- 
CERITY; 8.  JUSTICE;  9.  MODERATION;  10.  CLEANLINESS  ; 
IT.  TRANQUILLITY;  12.  CHASTITY;  13.  HUMILITY.  Each 
of  these  appears,  by  its  full  name  or  its  initial,  on  every 
page  of  the  book.  But  the  full  name  of  one  only  appears 
on  each  page. 

"  My  intention  being  to  acquire  the  habitude  of  these 
virtues,  I  judged  it  would  be  -well  not  to  distract  my  atten- 
tion by  attempting  the  whole  at  once,  but  to  fix  it  on  one 
of  them  at  a  time,  and  when  I  should  be  master  of  that, 
then  to  proceed  to  another,  — and  so  on,  till  I  should  have 
gone  through  the  thirteen ;  and  as  the  previous  acquisi- 
tion might  facilitate  the  acquisition  of  certain  others,  I 
arranged  them  with  that  view.  Temperance  first,  as  it 
tends  to  procure  that  coolness  and  clearness  of  head 
which  is  so  necessary  where  constant  vigilance  has  to  be 
kept  up,  and  a  guard  maintained  against  the  unremitting 
attraction  of  ancient  habits,  and  the  force  of  perpetual 


RESOL UTIOSS  BO O  V. 


ton. 


temptations."1  And  so  he  goes  on  to  show  how  Tem- 
perance would  prepare  for  Silence,  Silence  for  Order, 
Order  for  Resolution,  and  thus  to  the  end. 

Here  is  the  first  page  of  the  book,  with  the  marks  for 
the  first  six  of  the  virtues. 


TEMPERANCE. 

EAT  NOT  TO  DULNESS. 

DRINK  NOT  TO  ELEVATION. 

S. 

M. 

T. 

W. 

Th. 

F. 

S. 

T. 

S. 

* 

* 

# 

* 

0. 

# 

* 

* 

* 

* 

* 

R. 

* 

# 

F. 

* 

* 

I. 

* 

S. 

J- 

M. 

C. 

T. 

C. 

H. 

"  I  determined  to  give  a  week's  strict  attention  to  each 
of  the  virtues  successively.  Thus,  in  the  first  week  my 
great  guard  ^/as  to  avoid  every  the  least  offence  against 
Temperance,  leaving  the  other  virtues  to  their  ordinary 
chance,  only  marking  every  evening  the  faults  of  the  day. 

1  As  St.  James  says,  "  The  wisdom  from  above  is  first  pure." 


i-02  <$73&ti$$   OF  INVENTION. 

Thus,  if  in  the  first  week  I  could  keep  my  first  line, 
marked  T,  clear  of  spots,  I  supposed  the  habit  of  that 
virtue  so  much  strengthened,  and  its  opposite  weakened, 
that  I  might  venture  extending  my  attention  to  include 
the  next,  and  for  the  following  week  keep  both  lines  clear 
of  spots.  Proceeding  thus  to  the  last,  I  could  go  through 
a  course  complete  in  thirteen  weeks,  and  four  courses  in 
a  year.  And  like  him  who  having  a  garden  to  weed 
does  not  attempt  to  eradicate  all  the  bad  herbs  at  once, 
which  would  exceed  his  reach  and  his  strength,  but  works 
on  one  of  the  beds  at  a  time,  and,  having  accomplished 
the  first,  proceeds  to  the  second,  so  I  should  have,  I 
hoped,  the  encouraging  pleasure  of  seeing  on  my  pages 
the  progress  I  made  in  virtue,  by  clearing  successively  my 
lines  of  their  spots,  till  in  the  end,  by  a  number  of  courses, 
I  should  be  happy  in  viewing  a  clean  book,  after  a  thir- 
teen weeks'  daily  examination." 

Uncle  Fritz  said  that  this  plan  of  Franklin's  had  been 
quite  a  favorite  plan  of  different  people  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century.  Richard  Lovell  Edgeworth,  and  Mr.  Day, 
and  a  good  many  of  the  other  reformers  in  England,  and 
many  in  France,  really  thought  that  if  people  only  knew 
what  was  right  they  would  all  begin  and  do  it.  They  had 
to  learn,  by  their  own  experience  or  somebody's,  that  the 
difficulty  was  generally  deeper  down. 

There  was  a  man,  named  Droz,  who  published  a  little 
book  called  "The  Art  of  being  Happy,"  with  tables  on 
which  every  night  you  were  to  mark  yourself,  as  a  school- 
mistress marks  scholars  at  school,  10  for  truth,  3  for  tem- 
per, 5  for  industry,  9  for  frugality,  and  so  on.1 

1  Joseph  Droz,  born  in  1773.  His  essay  was  published  in  1806,  and  had 
come  to  its  fourth  edition  in  1825. 


ELECTRICITY.  1 03 

"  But  in  the  long  run,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "  there  may 
be  too  much  self-examination.  If  you  really  look  up  and 
not  down,  and  look  forward  and  not  back,  and  loyally 
lend  a  hand,  why,  you  can  afford  to  look  out  and  not  in, 
.in  general." 

Fergus  brought  the  talk  back  to  the  lightning-rod,  and 
asked  where  was  the  earliest  hint  of  it. 

The  history  seems  to  be  this.  In  the  year  1747  a  gen- 
tleman named  Collinson  sent  to  Franklin,  from  England 
or  Scotland,  one  of  the  glass  tubes  with  which  people 
were  then  trying  electrical  experiments.  Franklin  was 
very  much  interested.  He  went  on  repeating  the  experi- 
ments which  had  been  made  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent of  Europe.  With  his  general  love  of  society  in  such 
things,  he  had  other  glass  tubes  made,  and  gave  them  to 
his  friends. 

He  had  one  immense  advantage  over  the  wise  men  of 
England  and  France,  in  the  superior  dryness  of  our  air, 
which  greatly  favors  such  experiments.  Almost  any  one 
of  the  young  Americans  who  will  read  this  book  has  tried 
the  experiment  of  exciting  electricity  by  shuffling  across  a 
Brussels  carpet  on  a  dry  floor,  and  then  lighting  the  gas 
from  a  gas-jet  by  the  spark.  But  when  you  tell  an  Eng- 
lishman in  London  that  you  have  done  this,  he  thinks  at 
first  that  you  are  making  fun  of  him.  For  it  is  very  sel- 
dom that  the  air  and  the  carpet  and  the  floor  are  all  dry 
enough  for  the  experiment  to  succeed  in  England.  This 
difference  of  climate  accounts  for  the  difficulty  which  the 
philosophers  in  England  sometimes  found  in  repeating 
Dr.  Franklin's  experiments. 

When  it  came  to  lightning  and  experiments  about  that, 
he  had  another  very  great  advantage ;  for  we  have  many 
more  thunder-storms  than  they  have.  In  the  year  1752, 


IO4  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

when  Mr.  Watson  was  very  eager  to  try  the  lightning  ex- 
periments in  England,  he  seems  to  have  had,  in  all  the 
summer,  but  two  storms  of  thunder  and  lightning. 

Franklin  made  his  apparatus  on  a  scale  which  now 
seems  almost  gigantic.  The  "  conductor  "  of  an  electri- 
cal machine  such  as  you  will  generally  see  in  a  college 
laboratory  is  seldom  more  than  two  feet  long.  Franklin's 
conductor,  which  was  hung  by  silk  from  the  top  of  his 
room,  was  a  cylinder  ten  feet  long  and  one  foot  in  diam- 
eter, covered  with  gilt  paper.  In  his  "  Leyden  battery  " 
he  used  five  glass  jars,  as  big  as  large  water-pails,  —  they 
held  nine  gallons  each.  One  night  he  had  arranged  to 
kill  a  turkey  by  a  shock  from  two  of  these.  He  received 
the  shock  himself,  by  accident,  and  it  almost  killed  him. 
He  had  a  theory  that  if  turkeys  were  killed  by  electricity, 
the  meat  would  perhaps  be  more  tender. 

He  acknowledges  Mr.,Collinson's  present  of  the  glass 
tube  as  early  as  March  28,  1747.  On  the  nth  of  July 
he  writes  to  Collinson  that  they  ("we  ")  had  discovered 
the  power  of  points  to  withdraw  electricity  silently  and 
continuously.  On  this  discovery  the  lightning-rod  is 
based.  He  describes  this  quality,  first  observed  by  Mr. 
Hopkinson,  in  the  following  letter  :  — 

"The  first  is  the  wonderful  effect  of  pointed  bodies, 
both  in  drawing  off&&&  throwing  ojf  t\\e  electrical  fire. 

"  For  example,  place  an  iron  shot,  of  three  or  four 
inches  diameter,  on  the  mouth  of  a  clean,  dry  glass  bottle. 
By  a  fine  silken  thread  from  the  ceiling,  right  over  the 
mouth  of  the  bottle,  suspend  a  small  cork  ball  about  the 
bigness  of  a  marble ;  the  thread  of  such  a  length,  as  that 
the  cork  ball  may  rest  against  the  side  of  the  shot.  Elec- 
trify the  shot,  and  the  ball  will  be  repelled  to  the  distance 
of  four  or  five  inches,  more  or  less,  according  to  the 


SHARP  CONDUCTORS.  1 05 

quantity  of  electricity.  When  in  this  state,  if  you  present 
to  the  shot  the  point  of  a  long,  slender,  sharp  bodkin,  at 
six  or  eight  inches  distance,  the  repellency  is  instantly 
destroyed,  and  the  cork  flies  to  the  shot.  A  blunt  body 
must  be  brought  within  an  inch  and  draw  a  spark,  to  pro- 
duce the  same  effect.  To  prove  that  the  electrical  fire  is 
drawn  vffby  the  point,  if  you  take  the  blade  of  the  bodkin 
out  of  the  wooden  handle,  and  fix  it  in  a  stick  of  sealing- 
wax,  and  then  present  it  at  the  distance  aforesaid,  or  if  you 
bring  it  very  near,  no  such  effect  follows ;  but  sliding  one 
finger  along  the  wax  till  you  touch  the  blade,  the  ball  flies 
to  the  shot  immediately.  If  you  present  the  point  in  the 
dark,  you  will  see,  sometimes  at  a  foot  distance  and  more, 
a  light  gather  upon  it,  like  that  of  a  firefly  or  glow-worm ; 
the  less  sharp  the  point,  the  nearer  you  must  bring  it  to 
observe  the  light ;  and  at  whatever  distance  you  see  the 
light,  you  may  draw  off  the  electrical  fire,  and  destroy  the 
repellency.  If  a  cork  ball  so  suspended  be  repelled  by 
the  tube,  and  a  point  be  presented  quick  to  it,  though  at  a 
considerable  distance,  it  is  surprising  to  see  how  suddenly 
it  flies  back  to  the  tube.  Points  of  wood  will  do  near  as 
well  as  those  of  iron,  provided  the  wood  is  not  dry ;  for 
perfectly  dry  wood  will  no  more  conduct  electricity  than 
sealing-wax. 

"  To  show  that  points  will  throw  off  as  well  as  draw  off 
the  electrical  fire,  lay  a  long,  sharp  needle  upon  the  shot, 
and  you  cannot  electrize  the  shot  so  as  to  make  it  repel 
the  cork  ball.  Or  fix  a  needle  to  the  end  of  a  suspended 
gun-barrel  or  iron  rod,  so  as  to  point  beyond  it  like  a  little 
bayonet;  and  while  it  remains  there,  the  gun-barrel  or 
rod  cannot,  by  applying  the  tube  to  the  other  end,  be 
electrized  so  as  to  give  a  spark,  the  fire  continually  run- 
ning out  silently  at  the  point.  In  the  dark  you  may  see 


106  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

it  make  the  same  appearance  as  it  does  in  the  case  before 
mentioned." 

The  next  summer,  that  of  1 748,  the  experiments  went 
so  far,  that  in  a  letter  of  Franklin's  to  Collinson  he  pro- 
posed the  electrical  dinner-party,  which  was  such  a  de- 
light to  Harry  and  Lucy  :  — 

"  Chagrined  a  little  that  we  have  been  hitherto  able  to 
produce  nothing  in  this  way  of  use  to  mankind,  and  the 
hot  weather  coming  on  when  electrical  experiments  are 
not  so  agreeable,  it  is  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  them  for 
this  season,  somewhat  humorously,  in  a  party  of  pleasure 
on  the  banks  of  the  Skuylkill.  Spirits,  at  the  same  time, 
are  to  be  fired  by  a  spark  sent  from  side  to  side  through 
the  river,  without  any  other  conductor  than  the  water ;  an 
experiment  which  we  some  time  since  performed,  to  the 
amazement  of  many.  A  turkey  is  to  be  killed  for  our 
dinner  by  the  electrical  shock,  and  roasted  by  the  electrical 
jack,  before  a  fire  kindled  by  the  electrified  bottle  ;  when 
the  healths  of  all  the  famous  electricians  in  England,  Hol- 
land, France,  and  Germany  are  to  be  drank  in  electrified 
bumpers,  under  the  discharge  of  guns  from  the  electrical 
battery." 

It  was  in  a  letter  to  Collinson  of  the  next  year,  1 749,  — 
as  I  suppose,  though  it  is  not  dated,  —  that  the  project  of 
the  lightning-rod  first  appears.  It  is  too  long  to  copy. 
The  paragraphs  most  important  in  this  view  are  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

"42.  An  electrical  spark,  drawn  from  an  irregular  body 
at  some  distance,  is  scarcely  ever  straight,  but  shows 
crooked  and  waving  in  the  air.  So  do  the  flashes  of  light- 
ning, the  clouds  being  very  irregular  bodies. 

"  43.  As  electrified  clouds  pass  over  a  country,  high  hills 
and  high  trees,  lofty  towers,  spires,  masts  of  ships,  chim- 


LIGHTNING.  IO/ 

neys,  &c.,  as  so  many  prominences  and  points,  draw  the 
electrical  fire,  and  the  whole  cloud  discharges  there. 

"  44.  Dangerous,  therefore,  is  it  to  take  shelter  under  a 
tree  during  a  thunder-gust.  It  has  been  fatal  to  many, 
both  men  and  beasts. 

"  45.  It  is  safer  to  be  in  the  open  field  for  another  reason. 
When  the  clothes  are  wet,  if  a  flash  in  its  way  to  the  ground 
should  strike  your  head,  it  may  run  in  the  water  over  the 
surface  of  your  body ;  whereas,  if  your  clothes  were  dry, 
it  would  go  through  the  body,  because  the  blood  and 
other  humors,  containing  so  much  water,  are  more  ready 
conductors. 

"  Hence  a  wet  rat  cannot  be  killed  by  the  exploding 
electrical  bottle,  when  a  dry  rat  may." 

In  a  letter  of  1750,  based  upon  observations  made  in 
1749,  Franklin  said  distinctly,  after  describing  some  arti- 
ficial lightning  which  he  had  made  :  — 

"  If  these  things  are  so,  may  not  the  knowledge  of  this 
power  of  points  be  of  use  to  mankind,  in  preserving  houses, 
churches,  ships,  &c.,  from  the  stroke  of  lightning,  by  di- 
recting us  to  fix,  on  the  highest  parts  of  these  edifices, 
upright  rods  of  iron  made  sharp  as  a  needle,  and  gilded  to 
prevent  rusting,  and  from  the  foot  of  those  rods  a  wire 
down  the  outside  of  the  building  into  the  ground,  or  down 
round  one  of  the  shrouds  of  a  ship,  and  down  her  side  till 
it  reaches  the  water?  Would  not  these  pointed  rods  prob- 
ably draw  the  electrical  fire  silently  out  of  a  cloud  before  it 
came  nigh  enough  to  strike,  and  thereby  secure  us  from 
that  most  sudden  and  terrible  mischief? 

"To  determine  the  question  whether  the  clouds  that 
contain  lightning  are  electrified  or  not,  I  would  propose  an 
experiment  to  be  tried  where  it  may  be  done  conveniently. 
On  the  top  of  some  high  tower  or  steeple,  place  a  kind  of 


108  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

sentry-box,  big  enough  to  contain  a  man  and  an  electrical 
stand.  From  the  middle  of  the  stand  let  an  iron  rod  rise 
and  pass  bending  out  of  the  door  and  then  upright  twenty 
or  thirty  feet,  pointed  very  sharp  at  the  end.  If  the  elec- 
trical stand  be  kept  clean  and  dry,  a  man  standing  on  it, 
when  such  clouds  are  passing  low,  might  be  electrified  and 
afford  sparks,  the  rod  drawing  fire  to  him  from  a  cloud. 
If  any  danger  to  the  man  should  be  apprehended  (though 
I  think  there  would  be  none),  let  him  stand  on  the  floor  of 
his  box,  and  now  and  then  bring  near  to  the  rod  the  loop 
of  a  wire  that  has  one  end  fastened  to  the  leads,  he  holding 
it  by  a  wax  handle ;  so  the  sparks,  if  the  rod  is  electrified, 
will  strike  from  the  rod  to  the  wire,  and  not  affect  him." 

The  Royal  Society  "  did  not  think  these  papers  worth 
printing  "  ! 

But,  happily,  Collinson  printed  them,  and  they  went  all 
over  Europe.  The  demonstration  of  the  lightning  theory, 
which  he  had  wrought  out  by  his  own  experiments,  was 
made  in  France,  May  10,  1752;  and  in  Philadelphia  by 
Franklin  with  'the  kite  in  the  next  month,  before  he  had 
heard  of  the  success  in  France.  Franklin's  friend  Dali- 
bard  tried  the  French  experiment.  Here  is  his  account  of 
it,  as  he  sent  it  to  the  French  Academy,  as  Roxana  trans- 
lated it  for  the  young  people  :  — 

I  have  had  perfect  success  in  following  out  the  course 
indicated  by  Mr.  Franklin. 

I  had  set  up  at  Marly-la-ville,  situated  six  leagues  from 
Paris,  in  a  fine  plain  at  a  very  elevated  level,  a  round  rod 
of  iron,  about  an  inch  in  diameter,  forty  feet  long,  and 
sharply  pointed  at  its  upper  extremity.  To  secure  greater 
fineness  at  the  point,  I  had  it  armed  with  tempered  steel, 
and  then  burnished,  for  want  of  gilding,  so  as  to  keep  it 


THE   GREAT  EXPERIMENT.  109 

from  rusting ;  beside  that,  this  iron  rod  is  bent  near  its 
lower  end  into  two  acute  but  rounded  angles ;  the  first  an- 
gle is  two  feet  from  the  lower  end,  and  the  second  takes  a 
contrary  direction  at  three  feet  from  the  first. 

Wednesday,  the  loth  of  May,  1752,  between  two  and 
three  in  the  afternoon,  a  man  named  Coiffier,  an  old  dra- 
goon, whom  I  had  intrusted  with  making  the  observations 
in  my  absence,  having  heard  rather  a  loud  clap  of  thunder, 
hastened  at  once  to  the  machine,  took  the  phial  with  the 
wire,  presented  the  loop  of  the  wire  to  the  rod,  saw  a 
small  bright  spark  come  from  it,  and  heard  it  crackle. 
He  then  drew  a  second  spark,  brighter  than  the  first  and 
with  a  louder  sound  !  He  called  his  neighbors,  and  sent 
for  the  Prior.  This  gentleman  hastened  to  the  spot  as 
fast  as  he  could  :  the  parishioners,  seeing  the  haste  of  their 
priest,  imagined  that  poor  Coiffier  had  been  killed  by  the 
thunder ;  the  alarm  was  spread  in  the  village ;  the  hail- 
storm which  began  did  not  prevent  the  flock  from  fol- 
lowing its  shepherd.  This  honest  priest  approached  the 
machine,  and,  seeing  'that  there  was  no  danger,  went  to 
work  himself  and  drew  strong  sparks.  The  cloud  from 
which  the  storm  and  hail  came  was  no  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  in  passing  directly  over  our  machine,  and 
only  this  one  thunder-clap  was  heard.  As  soon  as  the 
cloud  had  passed,  and  no  more  sparks  were  drawn  from 
the  iron  rod,  the  Prior  of  Marly  sent  off  Monsieur  Coiffier 
himself,  to  bring  me  the  following  letter,  which  he  wrote 
in  haste  :  — 

I  can  now  inform  you,  Sir,  of  what  you  are  looking 
for.  The  experiment  is  completely  successful.  To-day, 
at  twenty  minutes  past  two,  P.  M.,  the  thunder  rolled 


110  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

directly  over  Marly ;  the  clap  was  rather  loud.  The  desire 
to  oblige  you,  and  my  own  curiosity,  made  me  leave  my 
arm-chair,  where  I  was  occupied  in  reading.  I  went  to 
Coiffier's,  who  had  already  sent  a  child  to  me,  whom  I  met 
on  the  way,  to  beg  me  to  come.  I  redoubled  my  speed 
through  a  torrent  of  hail.  When  I  arrived  at  the  place 
where  the  bent  rod  was  set  up,  I  presented  the  wire,  ap- 
proaching it  several  times  toward  the  rod.  At  the  distance 
of  an  inch  and  a  half,  or  about  that,  there  came  out  of  the 
rod  a  little  column  of  bluish  fire  smelling  of  sulphur,  which 
struck  the  loop  of  the  wire  with  an  extreme  and  rapid  en- 
ergy, and  occasioned  a  sound  like  that  which  might  be 
made  by  striking  on  the  rod  with  a  key.  I  repeated  the 
experiment  at  least  six  times,  in  the  space  of  about  four 
minutes,  in  the  presence  of  several  persons  ;  and  each  ex- 
periment which  I  made  lasted  the  space  of  a  Pater  and  an 
Ave.  I  tried  to  go  on ;  the  action  of  the  fire  slackened 
little  by  little.  I  went  nearer,  and  drew  nothing  more  but 
a  few  sparks,  and  at  last  nothing  appeared. 

The  thunder-clap  which  caused  this  event  was  fol- 
lowed by  no  other ;  it  all  ended  in  a  great  quantity  of  hail. 
I  was  so  occupied  with  what  I  saw  at  the  moment  of  the 
experiment,  that,  having  been  struck  on  the  arm  a  little 
above  my  elbow,  I  cannot  say  whether  it  was  in  touching 
the  wire  or  the  rod,  I  was  not  even  aware  of  the  injury 
which  the  blow  had  given  me  at  the  moment  when  I  re- 
ceived it ;  but  as  the  pain  continued,  on  my  return  home 
I  uncovered  my  arm  before  Coiffier,  and  we  perceived  a 
bruised  mark  winding  round  the  arm,  like  what  a  wire 
would  have  made  if  my  bare  flesh  had  been  struck  by  it. 
As  I  was  going  back  from  Coiffter's  house,  I  met  Monsieur 
le  Vicaire,  Monsieur  de  Milly,  and  the  schoolmaster,  to 
whom  I  related  what  had  just  happened.  They  all  three 


THE  GREAT  EXPERIMENT.  Ill 

declared  that  they  smelt  an  odor  of  sulphur,  which  struck 
them  more  as  they  approached  me.  I  carried  the  same 
odor  home  with  me,  and  my  servants  noticed  it  without 
my  having  said  anything  to  them  about  it. 

This,  Monsieur,  is  an  account  given  in  haste,  but  sim- 
ple and  true,  which  I  attest,  and  you  may  depend  on  my 
being  ready  to  give  evidence  of  this  event  on  every  oppor- 
tunity. Coiffier  was  the  first  who  made  the  experiment, 
and  repeated  it  several  times ;  it  was  only  on  account  of 
what  he  had  seen  that  he  sent  to  ask  me  to  come.  If 
other  witnesses  than  he  and  I  are  necessary,  you  will  find 
them.  Coiffier  is  in  haste  to  set  out. 

I  am,  with  respectful  consideration,  Monsieur, 

Yours,  &c., 

[Signed]  RAULET,  Prior  of  Marly. 

MAY  10, 1752. 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "  how  it  hap- 
pened that  no  one  attempted  the  experiment  before. 
Franklin  had  proposed  it,  very  distinctly,  in  1 750.  His 
friend  Dr.  Stuber  says  that  he  was  waiting  for  the  erection 
of  a  steeple  in  Philadelphia.  You  see,  the  Quakers,  who 
had  founded  this  city,  would  have  none ;  they  derided 
what  they  called  '  steeple-houses,'  little  foreseeing  what 
advantage  could  be  drawn  from  a  steeple. 

"Meanwhile,  in  1750,  in  October,  he  did  take  a>iew 
of  New  York  from  the  '  Dutch  Church  steeple,'  which 
had  been  struck  by  lightning  in  the  spring  of  that  year. 
And  here  he  was  able  to  confirm  his  theory,  by  seeing 
that  'wire  is  a  good  conductor  of  lightning,  as  it  is  of 
electricity.' " 


112  STORIES  OF  INDENTION. 


MUSICAL  GLASSES. 

While  some  of  the  children  were  reading  these  electrical 
passages,  others  were  turning  over  the  next  volume ;  and 
to  their  great  delight,  they  found  a  picture  of  the  "  Musical 
Glasses." 

"  I  never  had  the  slightest  idea  what  musical  glasses 
were,"  said  Jack ;  and  he  spouted  from  Goldsmith  the 
passage  from  "  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  where  the  fash- 
ionable ladies  from  London  talked  about  "  Shakspeare 
and  the  musical  glasses." 

"  Were  they  Dr.  Franklin's  musical  glasses?  " 

"I  never  thought  of  that,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  well 
pleased  ;  "  but  I  think  it  is  so.  John,  look  and  see  what 
year  'The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  '  was  written  in." 

John  turned  to  the  Cyclopaedia,  and  it  proved  that 
Goldsmith  wrote  that  book  in  1766. 

"  And  you  see,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "that  it  was  in  1762 
that  Franklin  made  his  improvement,  and  that  Mr.  Puck- 
eridge,  the  Irish  gentleman,  had  arranged  his  glasses  before. 
I  think  you  would  find  that  the  instrument  gradually 
worked  its  way  into  fashion,  —  slowly,  as  such  things  then 
did  in  England,  —  and  that  Goldsmith  knew  about  Dr. 
Franklin's  modification. 

"  I  do  not  now  remember  any  other  place  where  Gold- 
smith's life  and  his  touched.  But  they  must  have  known 
a  great  many  of  the  same  people.  Franklin  was  all  mixed 
up  with  the  Grub  Street  people." 

Meanwhile  John  was  following  up  the  matter  in  the 
Cyclopaedia.  But  he  did  not  find  "Armonica."  Uncle 
Fritz  bade  him  try  in  the  "  H  "  volume  ;  and  there,  sure 
enough,  was  "  Harmonica,"  with  quite  a  little  history  of 


HARMONICA.  113 

the  invention.  Mr.  Puckeridge's  fascinating  name  is 
there  tamed  down  to  Pochrich,  probably  by  some  Ger- 
man translator.  Dr.  Franklin's  instrument  is  described, 
and  the  Cyclopaedia  man  adds  :  — 

"  From  the  effect  which  it  was  supposed  to  have  upon 
the  nervous  system,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  fingers 
should  not  be  allowed  to  come  in  immediate  contact  with 
the  glasses,  but  that  the  tones  should  be  produced  by 
means  of  keys,  as  with  a  harpsichord.  Such  an  instru- 
ment has  been  made,  and  called  the  '  harpsichord  har- 
monica' But  these  experiments  have  not  produced 
anything  of  much  value.  It  is  impossible  that  the  del- 
icacy, the  swell,  and  the  continuation  of  the  tone  should 
be  carried  to  such  perfection  as  in  the  simpler  method. 
The  harmonica,  however  much  it  excels  all  other  instru- 
ments in  the  delicacy  and  duration  of  its  tones,  yet  is 
confined  to  those  of  a  soft  and  melancholy  character  and 
to  slow,  solemn  movements,  and  can  hardly  be  combined 
to  advantage  with  other,  instruments.  In  accompanying 
the  human  voice  it  throws  it  into  the  shade ;  and  in  con- 
certs the  other  instruments  lose  in  effect,  because  so  far 
inferior  to  it  in  tone.  It  is  therefore  best  enjoyed  by 
itself,  and  may  produce  a  charming  effect  in  certain 
romantic  situations." 

"  '  Romantic  situations  '  !  I  should  think  so,"  said  Ma- 
bel, laughing.  "  Is  not  that  like  the  dear  German  man 
that  wrote  this?  I  see  myself  lugging  my  harmonica  to 
the  edge  of  the  Kauterskill  Falls." 

"  How  do  you  know  he  was  a  German?"  said  Alice. 
"Because,  where  John  read  'the  simpler  method,'   it 
says  '  the  before-mentioned  method.'     No  Englishman  or 
American  in  his  senses  ever  said  '  before -mentioned '  if 
he  could  help  himself." 

8 


114  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

"Do  let  us  see  how  dear  Dr.  Franklin  made  his 
machine." 

And  the  girls  unfolded  the  old-fashioned  picture,  which 
is  in  the  sixth  volume  of  Sparks's  Franklin,  and  read  his 
description  of  it  as  he  wrote  it  to  Beccaria. 

"  Is  it  the  Beccaria  who  did  about  capital  punishment  ?" 
asked  Fergus. 

"No,"  Uncle  Fritz  said,  "though  they  lived  at  the 
same  time.  They  were  not  brothers.  The  capital-pun- 
ishment man  was  the  Marquis  of  Beccaria,  and  that  of 
makes  a  great  difference  in  Europe.  This  man  '  did ' 
electricity,  as  you  would  say;  and  his  name  is  plain 
Beccaria  without  any  of" 

Then  Mabel,  commanding  silence,  at  last  read  the  letter 
to  Beccaria.  And  when  she  had  done,  Uncle  Fritz  said 
that  he  should  think  there  might  be  many  a  boy  or  girl 
who  could  not  buy  a  piano  or  what  he  profanely  called 
a  Yang- Yang,  —  by  which  he  meant  a  reed  organ,  —  who 
would  like  to  make  a  harmonica.  The  letter,  in  a  part 
not. copied  here,  tells  how  to  tune  the  glasses.  And 
any  one  who  -  lived  near  a  glass-factory,  and  was  on  the 
good-natured  side  of  a  good  workman,  could  have  the 
glasses  made  without  much  expense. 

Letter  of  Franklin  to  J.  B.  Beccaria. 

LONDON,  July  13,  1762. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  ...  Perhaps,  however,  it  may  be 
agreeable  to  you,  as  you  live  in  a  musical  country,  to  have 
an  account  of  the  new  instrument  lately  added  here  to  the 
great  number  that  charming  science  was  already  possessed 
of.  As  it  is  an  instrument  that  seems  peculiarly  adapted 
to  Italian  music,  especially  that  of  the  soft  and  plaintive 
kind,  I  will  endeavor  to  give  you  such  a  description  of  it, 


MUSICAL    GLASSES.  115 

and  of  the  manner  of  constructing  it,  that  you  or  any  of 
your  friends  may  be  enabled  to  imitate  it,  if  you  incline 
so  to  do,  without  being  at  the  expense  and  trouble  I  have 
been  to  bring  it  to  its  present  perfection. 

You  have  doubtless  heard  of  the  sweet  tone  that  is  drawn 
from  a  drinking-glass  by  passing  a  wet  finger  round  its  brim. 
One  Mr.  Puckeridge,  a  gentleman  from  Ireland,  was  the 
first  who  thought  of  playing  tunes  formed  of  these  tones. 
He  collected  a  number  of  glasses  of  different  sizes,  fixed 
them  near  each  other  on  a  table,  tuned  them  by  putting 
into  them  water  more  or  less,  as  each  note  required.  The 
tones  were  brought  out  by  passing  his  finger  round  their 
brims.  He  was  unfortunately  burned  here,  with  his  in- 
strument, in  a  lire  which  consumed  the  house  he  lived  in. 
Mr.  E.  Delaval,  a  most  ingenious  member  of  our  Royal 
Society,  made  one  in  imitation  of  it,  with  a  better  form 
and  choice  of  glasses,  which  was  the  first  I  saw  or  heard. 
Being  charmed  by  the  sweetness  of  its  tones,  and  the 
music  he  produced  from  it,  I  wished  only  to  see  the 
glasses  disposed  in  a  more  convenient  form,  and  brought 
together  in  a  narrower  compass,  so  as  to  admit  of  a 
greater  number  of  tones,  and  all  within  reach  of  hand 
to  a  person  sitting  before  the  instrument,  which  I  accom- 
plished, after  various  intermediate  trials,  and  less  commo- 
dious forms,  both  of  glasses  and  construction,  in  the 
following  manner. 

The  glasses  are  blown  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  form 
of  hemispheres,  having  each  an  open  neck  or  socket  in  the 
middle.  The  thickness  of  the  glass  near  the  brim  about 
a  tenth  of  an  inch,  or  hardly  quite  so  much,  but  thicker 
as  it  comes  nearer  the  neck,  which  in  the  largest  glasses 
is  about  an  inch  deep,  and  an  inch  and  a  half  wide  within, 
these  dimensions  lessening  as  the  glasses  themselves  dhnin- 


Il6  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

ish  in  size,  except  that  the  neck  of  the  smallest  ought  not 
to  be  shorter  than  half  an  inch.  The  largest  glass  is  nine 
inches  diameter,  and  the  smallest  three  inches.  Between 
these  two  are  twenty-three  different  sizes,  differing  from 
each  other  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  To  make  a 
single  instrument  there  should  be  at  least  six  glasses  blown 
of  each  size ;  and  out  of  this  number  one  may  probably 
pick  thirty-seven  glasses  (which  are  sufficient  for  three 
octaves  with  all  the  semitones)  that  will  be  each  either  the 
note  one  wants  or  a  little  sharper  than  that  note,  and  all 
fitting  so  well  into  each  other  as  to  taper  pretty  regularly 
from  the  largest  to  the  smallest.  It  is  true  there  are  not 
thirty-seven  sizes,  but  it  often  happens  that  two  of  the 
same  size  differ  a  note  or  half-note  in  tone,  by  reason  of  a 
difference  in  thickness,  and  these  may  be  placed  one  in 
the  other  without  sensibly  hurting  the  regularity  of  the 
taper  form. 

The  glasses  being  thus  turned,  you  are  to  be  provided 
with  a  case  for  them,  and  a  spindle  on  which  they  are  to 
be  fixed.  My  case  is  about  three  feet  long,  eleven  inches 
every  way  wide  at  the  biggest  end ;  for  it  tapers  all  the 
way,  to  adapt  it  better  to  the  conical  figure  of  the  set  of 
glasses.  This  case  opens  in  the  middle  of  its  height,  and 
the  upper  part  turns  up  by  hinges  fixed  behind.  The 
spindle,  which  is  of  hard  iron,  lies  horizontally  from  end 
to  end  of  the  box  within,  exactly  in  the  middle,  and  is 
made  to  turn  on  brass  gudgeons  at  each  end.  It  is  round, 
an  inch  in  diameter  at  the  thickest  end,  and  tapering  to  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  at  the  smallest.  A  square  shank  comes 
from  its  thickest  end  through  the  box,  on  which  shank  a 
wheel  is  fixed  by  a  screw.  This  wheel  serves  as  a  fly  to 
make  the  motion  equable,  when  the  spindle  with  the 
glasses  is  turned  by  the  foot  like  a  spinning-wheel.  My 


MUSICAL   GLASSES.  1 1/ 

wheel  is  of  mahogany,  eighteen  inches  diameter,  and 
pretty  thick,  so  as  to  conceal  near  its  circumference  about 
twenty-five  pounds  of  lead.  An  ivory  pin  is  fixed  in  the 
face  of  this  wheel,  and  about  four  inches  from  the  axis. 
Over  the  neck  of  this  pin  is  put  the  loop  of  the  string  that 
comes  up  from  the  movable  step  to  give  it  motion.  The 
case  stands  on  a  neat  frame  with  four  legs. 

To  fix  the  glasses  on  the  spindle,  a  cork  is  first  to  be 
fitted  in  each  neck  pretty  tight,  and  projecting  a  little 
without  the  neck,  that  the  neck  of  one  may  not  touch  the 
inside  of  another  when  put  together,  for  that  would  make 
a  jarring.  These  corks  are  to  be  perforated  with  holes  of 
different  diameters,  so  as  to  suit  that  part  of  the  spindle 
on  which  they  are  to  be  fixed.  When  a  glass  is  put  on,  by 
holding  it  stiffly  between  both  hands,  while  another  turns 
the  spindle,  it  may  be  gradually  brought  to  its  place.  But 
care  must  be  taken  that  the  hole  be  not  too  small,  lest,  in 
forcing  it  up,  the  neck  should  split ;  nor  too  large,  lest  the 
glass,  not  being  firmly  fixed,  should  turn  or  move  on  the 
spindle,  so  as  to  touch  or  jar  against  its  neighboring  glass. 
The  glasses  are  thus  placed  one  in  another,  the  largest  on 
the  biggest  e^id  of  the  spindle,  which  is  to  the  left  hand ; 
the  neck  of  this  glass  is  towards  the  wheel,  and  the  next 
goes  into  it  in  the  same  position,  only  about  an  inch  of  its 
brim  appearing  beyond  the  brim  of  the  first ;  thus  pro- 
ceeding, every  glass  when  fixed  shows  about  an  inch  of  its 
brim  (or  three  quarters  of  an  inch,  or  half  an  inch,  as  they 
grow  smaller)  beyond  the  brim  of  the  glass  that  contains 
it ;  and  it  is  Xrom  these  exposed  parts  of  each  glass  that 
the  tone  is  drawn,  by  laying  a  finger  upon  one  of  them  as 
the  spindle  and  glasses  turn  round. 

My  largest  glass  is  G,  a  little  below  the  reach  of  a  com- 
mon voice,  and  my  highest  G,  including  three  complete 


Il8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

octaves.  To  distinguish  the  glasses  the  more  readily  to 
the  eye,  I  have  painted  the  apparent  parts  of  the  glasses 
withinside,  every  semitone  white,  and  the  other  notes  of  the 
octave  with  the  seven  prismatic  colors,  —  viz.,  C,  red ;  D, 
orange  ;  E,  yellow ;  F,  green  ;  G,  blue  ;  A,  indigo ;  B, 
purple;  and  C,  red  again, — so  that  glasses  of  the  same 
color  (the  white  excepted)  are  always  octaves  to  each 
other. 

This  instrument  is  played  upon  by  sitting  before  the 
middle  of  the  set  of  glasses,  as  before  the  keys  of  a  harp- 
sichord, turning  them  with  the  foot,  and  wetting  them  now 
and  then  with  a  sponge  and  clean  water.  The  ringers 
should  be  first  a  little  soaked  in  water,  and  quite  free  from 
all  greasiness ;  a  little  fine  chalk  upon  them  is  sometimes 
useful,  to  make  them  catch  the  glass  and  bring  out  the 
tone  more  readily.  Both  hands  are  used,  by  which 
means  different  parts  are  played  together.  Observe  that 
the  tones  are  best  brought  out  when  the  glasses  \\i\-ufrom 
the  ends  of  the  fingers,  not  when  they  turn  to  them. 

The  advantages  of  this  instrument  are,  that  its  tones  are 
incomparably  sweet,  beyond  those  of  any  other ;  that  they 
may  be  swelled  and  softened  at  pleasure  by  stronger  or 
weaker  pressure  of  the  finger,  and  continued  to  any  length ; 
and  that  the  instrument,  being  once  well  tuned,  never 
again  wants  tuning. 

In  honor  of  your  musical  language,  I  have  borrowed 
from  it  the  name  of  this  instrument,  calling  it  the  Ar- 
monica. 

With  great  respect  and  esteem,  I  am,  &c., 

B.  FRANKLIN. 


VII. 

THEORISTS  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 
RICHARD    LOVELL   EDGEWORTH. 

A  T  the  next  meeting  there  was  a  slight  deviation  from 
^*-  the  absolutely  expected.  Bedford  and  Mabel  de- 
sired to  dispense  with  the  regular  order  of  the  day,  and 
moved  for  permission  to  bring  in  a  new  inventor,  "  in- 
vented by  myself,"  said  Mabel,  —  "  entirely  by  myself, 
assisted  by  Bedford.  Nobody  that  I  know  of  ever  heard 
of  him  before.  He  is  a  new  discovery." 

"Who  is  he?"  asked  Horace,  somewhat  piqued  that 
there  should  be  any  one  interesting  of  whom  he  had  not 
heard  even  the  name. 

"  What  did  he  invent?  "  asked  Emma. 

"Did  he  write  memoirs?  "  asked  Fergus. 

"  Did  you  ever  read  '  Frank '  ?  "  asked  Mabel,  in  what 
is  known  as  the  Socratic  method. 

There  was  a  slight  stir  at  the  mention  of  this  little 
classic.  Few  seemed  to  be  able  to  answer  in  the 
affirmative. 

"  I  have  read  '  Rollo,'  "  said  Horace. 

"  I  hafre  read  '  Frank,'  "  said  Will  Withers,  "  and  '  Harry 
and  Lucy/'and  the  (  Parents'  Assistant,'  and  '  Sandford  and 
Merton,'  and  '  Henry  Milner.'  In  fact,  there  are  few  of 
those  books,  all  kindred  volumes,  which  I  have  not  read. 
They  have  had  an  important  effect  upon  my  later  life." 


120  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

"  Hinc  illae  lachrymae,"  in  a  low  tone  from  Clem 
Waters. 

For  Colonel  Ingham,  the  turn  taken  by  the  conver- 
sation had  a  peculiar  charm.  He  was  of  the  generation 
before  the  rest,  and  what  were  to  them  but  ghostly  ideals 
were  to  him  glad  memories  of  a  happy  past. 

"Good!"  said  he.  "'Frank'  was,  in  a  sense,  the 
greatest  book  ever  written.  Do  you  remember  that  part 
where  Frank  lifted  up  the  skirts  of  his  coat  when  passing 
through  the  greenhouse?"  he  asked  of  Mabel. 

"  I  should  think  I  did,"  said  Mabel  and  Will.  As  for 
Bedford,  he  had  only  a  vague  recollection  of  it.  The 
others  considered  the  conversation  to  be  trembling  upon 
the  verge  of  insanity. 

"  Perhaps,"  said  Florence,  gently,  "  I  might  be  allowed 
to  suggest  that  although  you  have  heard  of  '  Frank '  and 
those  other  persons  mentioned,  we  have  not.  I  do  not 
think  that  I  ever  heard  of  an  inventor  named  Frank,  — 
did  he  have  any  other  name?  —  and  I  am  usually  con- 
sidered," she  went  on  modestly,  "  tolerably  well  informed. 
Therefore  the  present  conversation,  though  probably  edify- 
ing in  a  high  degree  to  those  who  have  read  '  Frank,'  or 
who  have  some  interest  in  horticulture  and  greenhouses, 
can  hardly  fail  to  be  very  stupid  to  those  of  us  who  have 
not." 

"My  dear  child,"  said  the  Colonel,  "you  are  right. 
Mabel  and  I,  and  Will  and  Bedford  here,  are  of  the 
generation  that  is  passing  off  the  stage.  We  look  back  to 
the  things  of  our  youth,  hardly  considering  that  fhere  are 
those  to  whom  that  period  suggests  Noah  and  his  ark." 

"But  who  is  the  inventor?"  asked  some  one  who 
thought  that  the  conversation  was  gradually  leaving  the 
trodden  path. 


EDGEWORTH.  121 

"Oh,  we  had  almost  forgotten  him,"  said  Bedford. 

"  The  inventor,"  said  Mabel,  producing  two  volumes 
from  under  her  arm,  "  is  Mr.  Richard  Lovell  Edge  worth, 
the  father  of  Maria  Edge  worth." 

"  What  did  he  invent?  "  asked  many  of  the  company. 

"  He  invented  the  telegraph." 

"  Well,  I  never  knew  that  before." 

"  I  thought  Morse  invented  the  telegraph." 

"  Did  n't  Dr.  Franklin  invent  the  telegraph?  " 

"I  thought  Edison  —  " 

Other  remarks  were  also  made,  showing  a  certain 
amount  of  incredulity. 

"You  mistake,"  said  Bedford,  placidly;  "  you  are  all  of 
you  under  a  misapprehension.  I  think  that  you  all  of  you 
allude  to  the  electric  telegraph,  — an  invention  of  a  later  date 
than  that  of  Mr.  Edgeworth,  and  one  of  more  value,  as  far 
as  practical  affairs  are  concerned.  No  ;  Mr.  Edgeworth  in- 
vented, or  thinks  he  invented,  the  telegraph  as  it  was  used 
in  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth, sometimes  named  the  Semaphore.  It  was  n't  a 
difficult  invention,  and  I  don't  believe  it  ever  came  to  any 
very  practical  use  as  constructed  by  Edgeworth,  though 
French  telegraphs  were  very  useful." 

"  What  kind  of  a  telegraph  was  it?  " 

"  Well,  it  was  just  the  kind  of  a  telegraph  that  the  con- 
ductor of  a  railroad  train  is  when  he  waves  his  arms  to  the 
engineer  to  go  ahead.  There  's  an  account  of  it  by 
Edgeworth  in  one  of  these  books,  with  pictures  to  it." 

"But  my^hief  interest  about  Edgeworth,"  said  Mabel, 
"  is  in  his  memoirs,  which  are  written  partly  by  himself  and 
partly  by  his  daughter.  They  are  really  very  amusing. 
He  was  married  five  times,  —  once  with  a  door-key  when 
he  was  only  fourteen." 


122  STORIES  OF  INVENT 7 'ON. 

This  startling  intelligence  roused  even  Colonel  Ingham 
to  demand  particulars.  Was  he  married  to  all  five  at 
once?  to  all  of  them  when  he  was  only  fourteen? 

"  No,"  admitted  Mabel,  with  some  regret ;  "  he  was 
married  to  them .  all  at  different  times,  and  he  was  di- 
vorced from  the  one  he  married  at  fourteen  with  the 
door-key." 

"  They  were  only  married  for  fun,"  said  Bedford.  "  It 
was  all  a  joke.  They  were  at  a  wedding,  and  they  thought 
it  would  be  funny  after  the  real  marriage  to  have  a  mftck 
one.  So  they  did,  and  married  Edgeworth  to  a  girl  who 
was  there.  It  was  a  real  marriage,  for  they  were  after- 
wards divorced." 

"  Well,"  said  Sam  Edmeston,  "  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear 
about  this  gentleman,  I  'm  sure,  though  I  never  did  hear 
of  him  before.  But  may  I  ask  why  it  was  necessary  to 
introduce  him  by  means  of  an  allusion  to  '  Frank '  and 
other  works  which  we  have  few  of  us  ever  read,  though 
it  is  very  possible  that  we  may  some  of  us  have  heard  of 
them?" 

"  I  see  why  Mabel  spoke  first  of  '  Frank,'  "  said  Colonel 
Ingham.  "And  I  think  that  she  did  very  well  to  bring 
Edgeworth  in  as  she  has  done.  And  Edgeworth,  though 
I  had  not  thought  of  him  before,  is  very  fit  to  be  one 
of  our  inventors,  not  so  much  for  his  individual  accom- 
plishments, which  were  little  more  than  curious,  —  tele- 
graph and  all,  —  as  for  being  a  good  representative  of  his 
age.  Those  of  you  who  know  a  little  of  the  century  be- 
tween 1750  and  1850  know  that  it  was  an  age  to  which 
many  of  the  secrets  of  physical  science  were  being  opened 
for  the  first  time.  Everybody  wras  going  back  to  Nature 
to  see  what  he  could  learn  from  her.  This  movement 
tj-,vept  all  over  France  and  England.  Every  gentleman 


CHILDREN'S  BOOKS.  123 

dabbled  in  the  sciences,  and  made  his  experiments  and 
inventions.  Voltaire  in  France  had  a  great  laboratory 
made  for  him  in  which  he  passed  some  years  in  chemical 
experiments.  It  was  the  age,  too,  of  great  inventions,  — 
of  the  application  of  physical  forces  to  the  life  of  man. 
The  invention  of  the  steam-engine  by  Watt,  and  the  ap- 
plications of  it  to  the  locomotive  and  the  steamboat,  came 
along  toward  the  end  of  this  period,  and  marked  the  work 
of  the  greatest  men.  But  every  one  could  not  invent  a 
steam-engine.  So,  by  the  hundreds  of  country  gentlemen 
who  studied  science,  chemistry,  and  astronomy,  and  the 
rest,  there  were  constructed  hundreds  of  orreries,  globes, 
carriages,  model-telegraphs,  and  such  things ;  and  it  is  of 
these  men  that  Edgeworth  is  the  best,  or  at  least  the 
most  available,  representative,  on  account  of  his  very 
interesting  memoirs. 

"  Such  books  as  '  Harry  and  Lucy '  and  '  Frank  '  are 
the  mirror  of  this  movement.  But  to  this  is  joined  some- 
thing more,  which  John  Morley  speaks  of  in  saying,  '  An 
age  touched  by  the  spirit  of  hope  turns  naturally  to  the 
education  of  the  young.'  Then  people  knew  that  their 
own  times  were  about  as  worthless  as  times  could  well  be  ; 
but  as  they  learned  more,  they  began  to  hope  that  things 
were  improving,  and  that  the  children  might  see  better 
times  than  those  in  which  the  fathers  lived.  And  as 
physical  science  was  to  them  an  all-important  factor  in 
this  approaching  millennium,  they  took  pains  to  teach 
these  things  to  the  young.  Any  of  you  who  have  read 
'  Frank  '  or  ^Gandford  and  Merton  '  will  see  what  I  mean. 
It  was  the  hope  that  the  children  might  be  able  to  take 
the  work  where  the  fathers  left  it,  and  carry  it  on.  And 
the  children  did.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  of 
these  eighteenth-century  theorists  had  the  first  or  vaguest 


124  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

idea  of  the  point  to  which  his  children  and  grandchildren 
would  carry  his  work. 

"  So  much  for  Mr.  Edgeworth  from  my  point  of  view," 
concluded  the  Colonel.  "  You  will  hear  what  he  thought 
of  himself  from  Bedford." 


EDGEWORTH'S   TELEGRAPH. 

[DESCRIBED  BY  HIMSELF.] 

Bets  of  a  rash  or  ingenious  sort  were  in  fashion  in  those 
days,  and  one  proposal  of  what  was  difficult  and  uncom- 
mon led  to  another.  A  famous  match  was  at  that  time 
pending  at  Newmarket  between  two  horses  that  were  in 
every  respect  as  nearly  equal  as  possible.  Lord  March, 
one  evening  at  Ranelagh,  expressed  his  regret  to  Sir 
Francis  Delaval  that  he  was  not  able  to  attend  New- 
market at  the  next  meeting.  "  I  am  obliged,"  said  he, 
"  to  stay  in  London.  I  shall,  however,  be  at  the  Turf 
Coffee  House.  I  shall  station  fleet  horses  on  the  road  to 
bring  me  the  earliest  intelligence  of  the  event  of  the  race, 
and  shall  manage  my  bets  accordingly." 

I  asked  at  what  time  in  the  evening  he  expected  to 
know  who  was  winner.  He  said  about  nine  in  the  even- 
ing. I  asserted  that  I  should  be  able  to  name  the  win- 
ning horse  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Lord  March 
heard  my  assertion  with  so  much  incredulity  as  to  urge 
me  to  defend  myself;  and  at  length  I  offered  to  lay  five 
hundred  pounds,  that  I  would  in  London  name  the  win- 
ning horse  at  Newmarket  at  five  o'clock  in  the  evening 
of  the  day  when  the  great  match  in  question  was  to  be 
run.  Sir  Francis,  having  looked  at  me  for  encouragement, 
offered  to  lay  five  hundred  pounds  on  my  side ;  Lord 


TELEGRAPHS.  125 

Eglintoun  did  the  same ;  Shaftoe  and  somebody  else  took 
up  their  bets ;  and  the  next  day  we  were  to  meet  at  the 
Turf  Coffee  House,  to  put  our  bets  in  writing.  After  we 
went  home,  I  explained  to  Sir  Francis  Delaval  the  means 
that  I  proposed  to  use.  I  had  early  been  acquainted 
with  Wilkins's  "  Secret  and  Swift  Messenger ;  "  I  had  also 
read  in  Hooke's  Works  of  a  scheme  of  this  sort,  and  I 
had  determined  to  employ  a  telegraph  nearly  resembling 
that  which  I  have  since  published.  The  machinery  I 
knew  could  be  prepared  in  a  few  days. 

Sir  Francis  immediately  perceived  the  feasibility  of  my 
scheme,  and  indeed  its  certainty  of  success.  It  was  sum- 
mer-time ;  and  by  employing  a  sufficient  number  of  per- 
sons, we  could  place  our  machines  so  near  as  to  be  almost 
out  of  the  power  of  the  weather.  When  we  all  met  at  the 
Turf  Coffee  House,  I  offered  to  double  my-  bet ;  so  did 
Sir  Francis.  The  gentlemen  on  the  opposite  side  were 
willing  to  accept  my  offer ;  but  before  I  would  conclude 
my  wager,  I  thought  it  fair  to  state  to  Lord  March  that  I 
did  not  depend  upon  the  fleetness  or  strength  of  horses 
to  carry  the  desired  intelligence,  but  upon  other  means, 
which  I  had,  of  being  informed  in  London  which  horse 
had  actually  won  at  Newmarket,  between  the  time  when 
the  race  should  be  concluded  and  five  o  'clock  in  the 
evening.  My  opponents  thanked  me  for  my  candor  and 
declined  the  bet.  My  friends  blamed  me  extremely  for 
giving  up  such  an  advantageous  speculation.  None  of 
them,  except  Sir  Francis,  knew  the  means  which  I  had 
intended  to  employ ;  and  he  kept  them  a  profound  secret, 
with  a  view  to 'use  them  afterwards  for  his  own  purposes. 
With  that  energy  which  characterized  everything  in  which 
he  engaged,  he  immediately  erected,  under  my  directions, 
an  apparatus  between  his  house  and  part  of  Piccadilly,  — 


126  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

an  apparatus  which  was  never  suspected  to  be  telegraphic. 
I  also  set  up  a  night  telegraph  between  a  house  which  Sir 
F.  Delaval  occupied  at  Hampstead,  and  one  to  which  I 
had  access  in  Great  Russell  Street,  Bloomsbury.  This 
nocturnal  telegraph  answered  well,  but  was  too  expensive 
for  common  use. 

Upon  my  return  home  to  Hare  Hatch,  I  tried  many 
experiments  on  different  modes  of  telegraphic  communica- 
tion. My  object  was  to  combine  secrecy  with  expedition. 
For  this  purpose  I  intended  to  employ  wintimills,  which 
might  be  erected  for  common  economical  uses,  and  which 
might  at  the  same  time  afford  easy  means  of  communica- 
tion "from  place  to  place  upon  extraordinary  occasions. 
There  is  a  windwill  at  Nettlebed,  which  can  be  distinctly 
seen  with  a  good  glass  from  Assy  Hill,  between  Maiden- 
head and  Henly,  the  highest  ground  in  England  south  of 
the  Trent.  With  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Perrot,  of  Hare 
Hatch,  I  ascertained  the  practicability  of  my  scheme 
between  these  places,  which  are  nearly  sixteen  miles 
asunder. 

I  have  had  occasion  to  show  my  claim  to  the  revival  of 
this  invention  in  modern. times,  and  In  particular  to  prove 
that  I  had  practised  telegraphic  communication  in  the 
year  1767,  long  before  it  was  ever  attempted  in  France. 
To  establish  these  truths,  I  obtained  from  Mr.  Perrot,  a 
Berkshire  gentleman,  who  resided  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Hare  Hatch,  and  who  was  witness  to  my  experiments,  his 
testimony  to  the  facts  which  I  have  just  related.  I  have 
his  letter ;  and  before  its  contents  were  published  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Irish  Academy  for  the  year  1796,  I 
showed  it  to  Lord  Charlemont,  President  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Academy. 


IRISH  TELEGRAPH.  I2/ 

MR.   EDGEWORTH'S   TELEGRAPH   IN   IRELAND, 
[DESCRIBED  BY  HIS  DAUGHTER.] 

In  August,  1794,  my  father  made  a  trial  of  his  tele- 
graph between  Pakenham  Hall  and  Edgeworth  Town,  a 
distance  of  twelve  miles.  He  found  it  to  succeed  beyond 
his  expectations';  and  in  November  following  he  made 
another  trial  of  it  at  Collon,  at  Mr.  Foster's,  in  the  county 
of  Louth.  The  telegraphs  were  on  two  hills,  at  fifteen 
miles'  distance  from  each  other.  A  communication  of 
intelligence  was  made,  and  an  answer  received,  in  the 
space  of  five  minutes.  Mr.  Foster  —  my  father's  friend, 
and  the  friend  of  everything  useful  to  Ireland  —  was  well 
convinced  of  the  advantage  and  security  this  country 
would  derive  from  a  system  of  quick  and  certain  commu- 
nication; and,  being  satisfied  of  the  sufficiency  of  this 
telegraph,  advised  that  a  memorial  on  the  subject  should 
be  drawn  up  for  Government.  Accordingly,  under  his 
auspices,  a  memorial  was  presented,  in  1795,  to  Lord 
Camden,  then  Lord  Lieutenant.  His  Excellency  glanced 
his  eye  over  the  paper,  and  said  that  he  did  not  think 
such  an  establishment  necessary,  but  desired  to  reserve 
the  matter  for  further  consideration.  My  father  waited 
in  Dublin  for  some  time.  The  suspense  and  doubt  in 
which  courtiers  are  obliged  to  live  is  very  different  from 
that  state  of  philosophical  doubt  which  the  wise  recom- 
mend, and  to  which  they  are  willing  to  submit.  My 
father's  patience  was  soon  exhausted.  The  county  in 
which  he  resided  was  then  in  a  disturbed  state ;  and  he 
was  eager  to  return  to  his  family,  who  required  his  pro- 
tection. Besides,  to  state  things  exactly  as  they  were, 


128  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

his  was  not  the  sort  of  temper  suited  to  attendance  upon 
the  great. 

The  disturbances  in  the  County  of  Longford  were  quieted 
for  a  time  by  the  military  ;  but  again,  in  the  autumn  of  the 
ensuing  year  (September,  1796),  rumors  of  an  invasion 
prevailed,  and  spread  with  redoubled  force  through  Ire- 
land, disturbing  commerce,  and  alarming  all  ranks  of  well- 
disposed  subjects.  My  father  wrote  to  Lord  Carhampton," 
then  Commander-in- Chief,  and  to  Mr.  Pelham  (now  Lord 
Chichester),  who  was  then  Secretary  in  Ireland,  offering 
his  services.  The  Secretary  requested  Mr.  Edgeworth 
would  furnish  him  with  a  memorial.  Aware  of  the  natural 
antipathy  that  public  men  feel  at  the  sight  of  long  memo- 
rials, this  was  made  short  enough  to  give  it  a  chance  of 
being  read. 

(Presented,  Oct.  6,  1796.) 

Mr.  Edgeworth  will  undertake  to  convey  intelligence 
from  Dublin  to  Cork,  and  back  to  Dublin,  by  means  of 
fourteen  or  fifteen  different  stations,  at  the  rate  of  one 
hundred  pounds  per  annum  for  each  station,  as  long  as 
Government  shall  think  proper  ;  and  from  Dublin  to  any 
other  place,  at  the  same  rate,  in  proportion  to  the  dis- 
tance :  provided  that  when  Government  chooses  to  dis- 
continue the  business,  they  shall  pay  one  year's  contract 
over  and  above  the  current  expense,  as  some  compensa- 
tion for  the  prime  cost  of  the  apparatus,  and  the  trouble  of 
the  first  establishment. 

In  a  letter  of  a  single  page,  accompanying  this  memo- 
rial, it  was  stated,  that  to  establish  a  telegraphic  corps  of 
men  sufficient  to  convey  intelligence  to  every  part  of  the 
kingdom  where  it  should  be  necessary,  stations  tenable 
against  a  mob  and  against  musketry  might  be  effected 


TELEGRAPH.  129 

for  the  sum  of  six  or  seven  thousand  pounds.  It  was 
further  observed,  that  of  course  there  must  be  a  consid- 
erable difference  between  a  partial  and  a  general  plan  of 
telegraphic  communication ;  that  Mr.  Edgeworth  was  per- 
fectly willing  to  pursue  either,  or  to  adopt  without  reserve 
any  better  plan  that  Government  should  approve.  Thanks 
were  returned,  and  approbation  expressed. 

Nothing  now  appeared  in  suspense  except  the  mode  of 
the  establishment,  whether  it  should  be  civil  or  military. 
Meantime  Mr.  Pelham  spoke  of  the  Duke  of  York's  wish 
to  have  a  reconnoitring  telegraph,  and  observed  that  Mr. 
Edgeworth's  would  be  exactly  what  his  Royal  Highness 
wanted.  Mr.  Edgeworth  in  a  few  days  constructed  a 
portable  telegraph,  and  offered  it  to  Mr.  Pelham.  He 
accepted  it,  and  at  his  request  my  brother  Lovell  carried 
it  to  England,  and  presented  it  to  the  Duke  from  Mr. 
Pelham. 

During  the  interval  of  my  brother's  absence  in  England, 
my  father  had  no  doubt  that  arrangements  were  making 
for  a  telegraphic  establishment  in  Ireland.  But  the  next 
time  he  went  to  the  castle,  he  saw  signs  of  a  change  in 
the  Secretary's  countenance,  who  seemed  much  hurried, 
—  promised  he  would  write,  —  wrote,  and  conveyed,  in 
diplomatic  form,  a  final  refusal.  Mr.  Pelham  indeed 
endeavored  to  make  it  as  civil  as  he  could,  concluding 
his  letter  with  these  words :  — 

The  utility  of  a  telegraph  may  hereafter  be  considered 
greater ;  but  I  trust  that  at  all  events  those  talents  which 
have  been  directed  to  this  pursuit  will  be  turned  to  some 
other  object,  and  that  the  public  will  have  the  benefit  of 
that  extraordinary  activity  and  zeal  which  I  have  witnessed 
on  this  occasion  in  some  other  institution  which  I  am 

9 


130  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

sure  that  the  ingenuity  of  the  author  will  not  require  much 
time  to  suggest. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect,  &c., 

T.  PELHAM. 
DUBLIN  CASTLE,  Nov.  17, 1796. 

Of  his  offer  to  establish  a  communication  from  the  coast 
of  Cork  to  Dublin,  at  his  own  expense,  no  notice  was 
taken.  "  He  had,  as  was  known  to  Government,  ex- 
pended £$oo  of  his  own  money ;  as  much  more  would 
have  erected  a  temporary  establishment  for  a  year  to 
Cork.  Thus  the  utility  of  this  invention  might  have  been 
tried,  and  the  most  prudent  government  upon  earth 
could  not  have  accused  itself  of  extravagance  in  being 
partner  with  a  private  gentleman  in  an  experiment  which 
had,  with  inferior  apparatus,  tind  at  four  times  the  ex- 
pense, been  tried  in  France  and  England,  and  approved." 
The  most  favorable  supposition  by  which  we  can  account 
for  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  Government  in  this  business 
is  that  a  superior  influence  in  England  forbade  them  to 
proceed.  "It  must,"  said  my  father,  "be  mortifying  to 
a  viceroy  who  comes  over  to  Ireland  with  enlarged  views 
and  benevolent  intentions,  to  discover,  when  he  attempts 
to  act  for  himself,  that  he  is  peremptorily  checked ;  that 
a  circle  is  chalked  round  him,  beyond  which  he  cannot 
move." 

No  personal  feelings  of  pique  or  disgust  prevented  my 
father  from  renewing  his  efforts  to  be  of  service  to  his 
country.  Two  months  after  the  rejection  of  his  telegraph, 
on  Friday  the  30th  of  December,  1796,  the  French  were 
on  the  Irish  coasts.  Of  this  he  received  intelligence  late 
at  night.  Immediately  he  sent  a  servant  express  to  the 
Secretary,  with  a  letter  offering  to  erect  telegraphs,  which 


TELEGRAPH.  131 

he  had  in  Dublin,  on  any  line  that  Government  should 
direct,  and  proposing  to  bring  his  own  men  with  him ; 
or  to  join  the  army  with  his  portable  telegraphs,  to  re- 
connoitre. His  servant  was  sent  back  with  a  note  from 
the  Secretary,  containing  compliments  and  the  promise 
of  a  speedy  answer  ;  no  further  answer  ever  reached  him. 
Upon  this  emergency  he  could,  with  the  assistance  of  his 
friends,  have  established  an  immediate  communication 
between  Dublin  and  the  coast,  which  should  not  have  cost 
the  country  one  shilling.  My  father  showed  no  mortifi- 
cation at  the  neglect  with  which  he  was  treated,  but 
acknowledged  that  he  felt  much  "concern  in  losing  an 
opportunity  of  saving  an  enormous  expense  to  the  public, 
and  of  alleviating  the  anxiety  and  distress  of  thousands." 
A  telegraph  was  most  earnestly  wished  for  at  this  time  by 
the  best-informed  people  in  Ireland,  as  well  as  by  those 
whose  perceptions  had  suddenly  quickened  at  the  view 
of  immediate  danger.  Great  distress,  bankruptcies,  and 
ruin  to  many  families,  were  the  consequences  of  this 
attempted  invasion.  The  troops  were  harassed  with  con- 
trary orders  and  forced  marches,  for  want  of  intelligence, 
and  from  that  indecision  which  must  always  be  the  con- 
sequence of  insufficient  information.  Many  days  were 
spent  in  terror  and  in  fruitless  wishes  for  the  English 
fleet.  One  fact  may  mark  the  hurry  and  confusion  of 
the  time ;  the  cannon  and  the  ball  sent  to  Bantry  Bay 
were  of  different  calibre.  At  last  Ireland  was  providen- 
tially saved  by  the  change  of  wind,  which  prevented  the 
enemy  from  effecting  a  landing  on  her  coast. 

That  the  public  will  feel  little  interest  in  the  danger 
of  an  invasion  of  Ireland  which  might  have  happened 
in  the  last  century ;  that  it  can  be  of  little  consequence 
to  the  public  to  hear  how  or  why,  twenty  years  ago,  this  or 


132  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

that  man's  telegraph  was  not  established,  —  I  am  aware  ; 
and  I  am  sensible  that  few  will  care  how  cheaply  it 
might  have  been  obtained,  or  will  be  greatly  interested 
in  hearing  of  generous  offers  which  were  not  accepted, 
and  patriotic  exertions  which  were  not  permitted  to  be 
of  any  national  utility.  I  know  that  as  a  biographer  I 
am  expected  to  put  private  feelings  out  of  the  question ; 
and  this  duty,  as  far  as  human  nature  will  permit,  I  hope 
I  have  performed. 

The  facts  are  stated  from  my  own  knowledge,  and 
from  a  more  detailed  account  in  his  own  "  Letter  to  Lord 
Charlemont  on  the  Telegraph,"  —  a  political  pamphlet, 
uncommon  at  least  for  its  temperate  and  good-humored 
tone. 

Though  all  his  exertions  to  establish  a  telegraph  in  Ire- 
land were  at  this  time  unsuccessful,  yet  he  persevered  in 
the  belief  that  in  future  modes  of  telegraphic  communi- 
cation would  be  generally  adopted ;  and  instead  of  his 
hopes  being  depressed,  they  were  raised  and  expanded 
by  new  consideration  of  the  subject  in  a  scientific  light. 
In  the  sixth  volume  of  the  "Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Academy,"  he  published  an  "  Essay  on  the  Art  of  Con- 
veying Swift  and  Secret  Intelligence,"  in  which  he  gives  a 
comprehensive  view  of  the  uses  to  which  the  system  may 
be  applied,  and  a  description,  with  plates,  of  his  own 
machinery.  Accounts  of  his  apparatus  and  specimens 
of  his  vocabulary  have  been  copied  into  various  popular 
publications,  therefore  it  is  sufficient  here  to  refer  to 
them.  The  peculiar  advantages  of  his  machinery  con- 
sist, in  the  first  place,  in  being  as  free  from  friction  as 
possible,  consequently  in  its  being  easily  moved,  and  not 
easily  destroyed  by  use ;  in  the  next  place,  on  its  being 
simple,  consequently  easy  to  make  and  to  repair.  The 


ENGLISH  TELEGRAPH.  133 

superior  advantage  of  his  vocabulary  arises  from  its  being 
undecipherable.  This  depends  on  his  employing  the 
numerical  figures  instead  of  the  alphabet.  With  a  power 
of  almost  infinite  change,  and  consequently  with  defiance 
of  detection,  he  applies  the  combination  of  numerical 
figures  to  the  words  of  a  common  dictionary,  or  to  any 
length  of  phrase  in  any  given  vocabulary.  He  was  the 
first  who  made  this  application  of  figures  to  telegraphic 
communication. 

Much  has  been  urged  by  various  modern  claimants 
for  the  honor  of  the  invention  of  the  telegraph.  In 
England  the  claims  of  Dr.  Hooke  and  of  the  Marquis 
of  Worcester  to  the  original  idea  are  incontestable.  But 
the  invention  long  lay  dormant,  till  wakened  into  active 
service  by  the  French.  Long  before  the  French  tele- 
graph appeared,  my  father  had  tried  his  first  telegraphic 
experiments.  As  he  mentions  in  his  own  narrative,  he 
tried  the  use  of  windmill  sails  in  1767  in  Berkshire ;  and 
also  a  nocturnal  telegraph  with  lamps  and  illuminated 
letters,  between  London  and  Hampstead.  He  refers  for 
the  confirmation  of  the  facts  to  a  letter  of  Mr.  Perrot's, 
a  Berkshire  gentleman  who  was  with  him  at  the  time. 
The  original  of  this  letter  is  now  in  my  possession.  It 
was  shown  in  1795  to  the  President  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  it :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  perfectly  recollect  having  several  con- 
versations with  you  in  1767  on  the  subject  of  a  speedy 
and  secret  conveyance  of  intelligence.  I  recollect  your 
going  up  the  hills  to  see  how  far  and  how  distinctly  the 
arms  (and  the  position  of  them)  of  Nettlebed  Windmill 
sails  were  to  be  discovered  with  ease. 

As  to  the  experiments  from  Highgate  to  London  by 


134  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

means  of  lamps,  I  was  not  present  at  the  time,  but  I 
remember  your  mentioning  the  circumstance  to  me  in 
the  same  year.  All  these  particulars  were  brought  very 
strongly  to  my  memory  when  the  French,  some  years  ago, 
conveyed  intelligence  by  signals;  and  I  then  thought 
and  declared  that  the  merit  of  the  invention  undoubtedly 
belonged  to  you.  I  am  very  glad  that  I  have  it  in  my 
power  to  send  you  this  confirmation,  because  I  imagine 
there  is  no  other  person  now  living  who  can  bear  witness 
to  your  observations  in  Berkshire. 
I  remain,  dear  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

JAMES  L.  PERROT. 
BATH,  Dec.  9,  1795. 

Claims  of  priority  of  invention  are  always  listened  to 
with  doubt,  or,  at  best,  with  impatience.  To  those  who 
bring  the  invention  to  perfection,  who  actually  adapt  it 
to  use,  mankind  are  justly  most  grateful,  and  to  these, 
rather  than  to  the  original  inventors,  grant  the  honors 
of  a  triumph.  Sensible  of  this,  the  matter  is  urged  no 
farther,  but  left  to  the  justice  of  posterity. 

I  am  happy  to  state,  however,  one  plain  fact,  which 
stands  independent  of  all  controversy,  that  my  father's 
was  \hzfirst,  and  I  believe  the  only,  telegraph  which  ever 
spoke  across  the  Channel  from  Ireland  to  Scotland.  He 
was,  as  he  says  in  his  essay  on  this  subject,  "  ambitious 
of  being  the  first  person  who  should  connect  the  islands 
more  closely  by  facilitating  their  mutual  intercourse  ;  " 
and  on  the  24th  of  August,  1794,  my  brothers  had  the 
satisfaction  of  sending  by  my  father's  telegraph  four  mes- 
sages across  the  Channel,  and  of  receiving  immediate 
answers,  before  a  vast  concourse  of  spectators. 


DR.   DARWIN.  135 

Edgeworth  to  Dr.  Darwin. 

EDGEWORTHTOWN,  Dec.  n,  1794. 

I  have  been  employed  for  two  months  in  experiments 
upon  a  telegraph  of  my  own  invention.  I  tried  it  par- 
tially twenty-six  years  ago,  It  differs  from  the  French  in 
distinctness  and  expedition,  as  the  intelligence  is  not  con- 
veyed alphabetically.  .  .  . 

I  intended  to  detail  my  telegraphs  (in  the  plural), 
but  I  find  that  I  have  not  room  at  present.  If  you  think 
it  worth  while,  you  shall  have  the  whole  scheme  before 
you,  which  I  know  you  will  improve  for  me.  Suffice  it, 
that  by  day,  at  eighteen  or  twenty  miles'  distance,  I  show, 
by  four  pointers,  isosceles  triangles,  twenty  feet  high,  on 
four  imaginary  circles,  eight  imaginary  points,  which  cor- 
respond with  the  figures 

o,  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7. 

So  that  seven  thousand  different  combinations  are  formed, 
of  four  figures  each,  which  refer  to  a  dictionary  of  words 
that  are  referred  to,  —  of  lists  of  the  navy,  army,  militia, 
lords,  commons,  geographical  and  technical  terms,  &c., 
besides  an  alphabet.  So  that  everything  one  wishes  may 
be  transmitted  with  expedition. 

By  night,  white  lights  are  used. 

Dr.  Darwin  to  Mr.  Edgeworth. 

DERBY,  March  15,  1795. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  beg  your  pardon  for  not  immediately  an- 
swering you**  last  favor,  which  was  owing  to  the  great  in- 
fluence the  evil  demon  has  at  present  in  all  affairs  on  this 
earth.  That  is,  I  lost  your  letter,  and  have  in  vain  looked 
over  some  scores  of  papers,  and  cannot  find  it.  Sec- 


136  STOKIES  OF  INVENTION. 

ondly,  having  lost  your  letter,  I  daily  hoped  to  find  it 
again  —  without  success. 

The  telegraph  you  described  I  dare  say  would  answer 
the  purpose.  It  would  be  like  a  giant  wielding  his  long 
arms  and  talking  with  his  fingers ;  and  those  long  arms 
might  be  covered  with  lamps  in  the  night.  You  would 
place  four  or  six  such  gigantic  figures  in  a  line,  so  that 
they  should  spell  a  whole  word  at  once ;  and  other  such 
figures  in  sight  of  each  other,  all  round  the  coast  of  Ire- 
land ;  and  thus  fortify  yourselves,  instead  of  Friar  Bacon's 
wall  of  brass  round  England,  with  the  brazen  head,  which 
spoke,  "  Time  is  !  Time  was  !  Time  is  past !  " 


MR.   EDGEWORTH'S    MACHINE. 

Having  slightly  mentioned  the  contrivances  made  use 
of  by  the  ancients  for  conveying  intelligence  swiftly,  and 
having  pointed  out  some  of  the  various  important  uses  to 
which  this  art  may  be  applied,  I  shall  endeavor  to  give  a 
clear  view  of  my  attempts  on  this  subject. 

Models  of  the  French  telegraph  have  been  so  often 
exhibited,  and  the  machine  itself  is  so  well  known,  that  it 
is  not  necessary  to  describe  it  minutely  in  this  place.  It 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  consists  of  a  tall  pole,  with  three 
movable  arms,  which  may  be  seen  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance through  telescopes ;  these  arms  may  be  set  in  as 
many  different  positions  as  are  requisite  to  express  all  the 
different  letters  of  the  alphabet.  By  a  successive  combi- 
nation of  letters  shown  in  this  manner,  words  and  sen- 
tences are  formed  and  intelligence  communicated.  No 
doubt  can  be  made  of  the  utility  of  this  machine,  as  it  has 
been  applied  to  the  most  important  purposes.  It  is  ob- 


TELL  0  GRAPH.  1 3  7 

viously  liable  to  mistakes,  from  the  number  of  changes 
requisite  for  each  word,  and  from  the  velocity  with  which 
it  must  be  moved  to  convey  intelligence  with  any  tol- 
erable expedition. 

The  name,  however,  which  is  well  chosen,  has  become 
so  familiar,  that  I  shall,  with  a  slight  alteration,  adopt  it 
for  the  apparatus  which  I  am  going  to  describe.  Tele- 
graph is  a  proper  name  for  a  machine  which  describes 
at  a  distance.  Telelograph,  or  contractedly  Tellograph,  is 
a  proper  name  for  a  machine  that  describes  words  at  a 
distance. 

Dr.  Hooke,  to  whom  every  mechanic  philosopher 
must  recur,  has  written  an  essay  upon  the  subject  of  con- 
veying swift  intelligence,  in  which  he  proposes  to  use  large 
wooden  letters  in  succession.  The  siege  of  Vienna  turned 
his  attention  to  the  business.  His  method  is  more  cum- 
brous than  the  French  telegraph,  but  far  less  liable  to 
error. 

I  tried  it  before  I  had  seen  Hooke 's  work,  in  the  year 
1767  in  London,  and  I  could  distinctly  read  letters  illu- 
minated with  lamps  in  Hampstead  Churchyard,  from  the 
house  of  Mr.  Elers  in  Great  Russell  Street,  Bloomsbury,  to 
whom  I  refer  for  date  and  circumstance.  To  him  and  to 
Mr.  E.  Delaval,  F.R.S.,  to  Mr.  Perrot,  of  Hare  Hatch, 
and  to  Mr  Woulfe  the  chemist,  I  refer  for  the  precedency 
which  I  claim  in  this  invention.  In  that  year  I  invented 
the  idea  of  my  present  tellograph,  proposing  to  make  use 
of  windmill  sails  instead  of  the  hands  or  pointers  which 
I  now  employ.  Mr.  Perrot  was  so  good  as  to  accompany 
me  more  than  once  to  a  hill  near  his  house  to  observe 
with  a  telescope  the  windmill  at  Nettlebed,  which  places 
are,  I  think,  sixteen  miles  asunder.  My  intention  at  that 
time  was  to  convey  not  only  a  swift  but  an  unsuspected 


138  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

mode  of  intelligence.  By  means  of  common  windmills 
this  might  have  been  effected,  before  an  account  of  the 
French  telegraph  was  made  public. 

My  machinery  consists  of  four  triangular  pointers  or 
hands  [each  upon  a  separate  pedestal,  ranged  along  in  a 
row],  each  of  which  points  like  the  hand  of  a  clock  to  dif- 
ferent situations  in  the  circles  which  they  describe.  It 
is  easy  to  distinguish  whether  a  hand  moving  vertically 
points  perpendicularly  downwards  or  upwards,  horizontally 
to  the  right  or  left,  or  to  any  of  the  four  intermediate 
positions. 

The  eye  can  readily  perceive  the  eight  different  posi- 
tions in  which  one  of  the  pointers  is  represented  [on  the 
plate  attached  to  the  article  in  the  "  Transactions,"  but  here 
omitted].  Of  these  eight  positions  seven  only  are  employed 
to  denote  figures,  the  upright  position  of  the  hand  or  pointer 
being  reserved  to  represent  o,  or  zero.  The  figures  thus 
denoted  refer  to  a  vocabulary  in  which  all  the  words  are 
numbered.  Of  the  four  pointers,  that  which  appears  to 
the  left  hand  of  the  observer  represents  thousands ;  the 
others  hundreds,  tens,  and  units,  in  succession,  as  in  com- 
mon numeration. 

[By  these  means,  as  Mr.  Edgeworth  showed,  numbers 
from  i  up  to  7,777,  omitting  those  having  a  digit  above  7, 
could  be  displayed  to  the  distant  observer,  who  on  refer- 
ring to  his  vocabulary  discovered  that  they  meant  such 
expressions  as  it  might  seem  convenient  to  transmit  by 
this  excellent  invention.  ] 

Although  the  electric  telegraphs  have  long  since  super- 
seded telegraphs  of  this  class  in  public  use,  the  young 
people  of  Colonel  Ingham's  class  took  great  pleasure  in 
the  next  summer  in  using  Mr.  Edge  worth's  telegraph  to 


HOME    TELEGRAPHY.  139 

communicate  with  each  other,  by  plans  easily  made  in 
their  different  country  homes. 

It  may  interest  the  casual  reader  to  know  that  the  first 
words  in  the  first  message  transmitted  on  the  telegraph 
between  Scotland  and  Ireland,  alluded  to  above,  were 
represented  by  the  numbers  2,645,  2>33T>  573?  I>113> 
244,  2,411,  6,336,  which  being  interpreted  are, — 

"  Hark  from  basaltic  rocks  and  giant  walls," 

and  so  on  with  the  other  lines,  seven  in  number.  This  is 
Mr.  Edgeworth's  concise  history  of  telegraphy  before  his 
time. 

The  art  of  conveying  intelligence  by  sounds  and  signals 
is  of  the  highest  antiquity.  It  was  practised  by  Theseus  in 
the  Argonautic  expedition,  by  Agamemnon  at  the  siege 
of  Troy,  and  by  Mardonius  in  the  time  of  Xerxes.  It  is 
mentioned  frequently  in  Thucydides.  It  was  used  by 
Tamerlane,  who  had  probably  never  heard  of  the  black 
sails  of  Theseus ;  by  the  Moors  in  Spain ;  by  the  Welsh 
in  Britain ;  by  the  Irish ;  and  by  the  Chinese  on  that  famous 
wall  by  which  they  separated  themselves  from  Tartary. 


All  this  detail  about  Mr.  Edgeworth's  telegraph  resulted 
in  much  search  in  the  older  encyclopaedias.  Quite  full 
accounts  were  found,  by  the  young  people,  of  his  system, 
and  of  the  French  system  afterwards  employed,  and  worked 
in  France  until  the  electric  telegraph  made  all  such  inven- 
tions unnecessary. 

Before  the  next  meeting,  Bedford  Long,  who  lived  on 
Highland  Street  in  Roxbury,  and  Hugh,  who  lived  on 
the  side  of  Corey  Hill,  were  able  to  communicate  with 
each  other  by  semaphore ;  and  at  the  next  meeting  they 


I4O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

arranged  two  farther  stations,  so  that  John,  at  Cambridge, 
and  Jane  Fortescue,  at  Lexington,  were  in  the  series. 

There  being  some  half  an  hour  left  that  afternoon,  the 
children  amused  themselves  by  looking  up  some  other  of 
Mr.  Edgeworth's  curious  experiments  and  vagaries. 


MORE  OF  MR.  EDGEWORTH'S  FANCIES. 

During  my  residence  at  Hare  Hatch  another  wager 
was  proposed  by  me  among  our  acquaintance,  the  pur- 
port of  which  was  that  I  undertook  to  find  a  man  who 
should,  with  the  assistance  of  machinery,  walk  faster  than 
any  other  person  that  could  be  produced.  The  machinery 
which  I  intended  to  employ  was  a  huge  hollow  wheel, 
made  very  light,  withinside  of  which,  in  a  barrel  of  six  feet 
diameter,  a  man  should  walk.  Whilst  he  stepped  thirty 
inches,  the  circumference  of  the  large  wheel,  or  rather 
wheels,  would  revolve  five  feet  on  the  ground ;  and  as  the 
machinery  was  to  roll  on  planks  and  on  a  plane  somewhat 
inclined,  when  once  the  vis  inertia  of  the  machine  should 
be  overcome,  it  would  carry  on  the  man  within  it  as  fast 
as  he  could  possibly  walk.  I  had  provided  means  of 
regulating  the  motion,  so  that  the  wheel  should  not  run 
away  with  its  master.  I  had  the  wheel  made ;  a;id  when 
it  was  so  nearly  completed  as  to  require  but  a  few  hours' 
work  to  finish  it,  I  went  to  London  for  Lord  Efrmgham, 
to  whom  I  had  promised  that  he  should  be  present  at  the 
first  experiment  made  with  it.  But  the  bulk  and  extraor- 
dinary appearance  of  my  machine  had  attracted  the  no- 
tice of  the  country  neighborhood  ;  and,  taking  advantage 
of  my  absence,  some  idle  curious  persons  went  to  the 
carpenter  I  employed,  who  lived  on  Hare  Hatch  Com- 


SAILING-CA  RRIA  GE.  1 4 1 

mon.  From  him  they  obtained  the  great  wheel  which 
had  been  left  by  me  in  his  care.  It  was  not  finished. 
I  had  not  yet  furnished  it  with  the  means  of  stopping 
or  moderating  its  motion.  A  young  lad  got  into  it ;  his 
companions  launched  it  on  a  path  which  led  gently  down 
hill  towards  a  very  steep  chalk-pit.  This  pit  was  at  such 
a  distance  as  to  be  out  of  their  thoughts  when  they  set  the 
wheel  in  motion.  On  it  ran.  The  lad  withinside  plied  his 
legs  with  all  his  might.  The  spectators,  who  at  first  stood 
still  to  behold  the  operation,  were  soon  alarmed  by  the 
shouts  of  their  companion,  who  perceived  his  danger.  The 
vehicle  became  quite  ungovernable ;  the  velocity  increased 
as  it  ran  down  hill.  Fortunately  the  boy  contrived  to  jump 
from  his  rolling  prison  before  it  reached  the  chalk-pit ;  but 
the  wheel  went  on  with  such  velocity  as  to  outstrip  its 
pursuers,  and,  rolling  over  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  it  was 
dashed  to  pieces. 

The  next  day,  when  1  came  to  look  for  my  machine,  in- 
tending to  try  it  on  some  planks  which  had  been  laid  for 
it,  I  found,  to  my  no  small  disappointment,  that  the  object 
of  all  my  labors  and  my  hopes  was  lying  at  the  bottom  of 
a  chalk-pit,  broken  into  a  thousand  pieces.  I  could  not 
at  that  time  afford  to  construct  another  wheel  of  this  sort, 
and  I  cannot  therefore  determine  what  might  have  been 
the  success  of  my  scheme. 

As  I  am  on  the  subject  of  carriages,  I  shall  mention 
a  sailing- carriage  that  I  tried  on  this  common.  The 
carriage  was  light,  steady,  and  ran  with  amazing  velocity. 
One  day,  when  I  was  preparing  for  a  sail  in  it  with  my 
friend  and  schoolfellow  Mr.  William  Foster,  my  wheel- 
boat  escaped  from  its  moorings  just  as  we  were  going  to 
step  on  board.  With  the  utmost  difficulty  I  overtook  it ; 
and  as  I  saw  three  or  four  stage-coaches  on  the  road,  and 


142  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

feared  that  this  sailing-chariot  might  frighten  their  horses, 
I,  at  the  hazard  of  my  life,  got  into  my  carriage  while  it  was 
under  full  sail,  and  then,  at  a  favorable  part  of  the  road,  I 
used  the  means  I  had  of  guiding  it  easily  out  of  the  way. 
But  the  sense  of  the  mischief  which  must  have  ensued  if 
I  had  not  succeeded  in  getting  Into  the  machine  at  the 
proper  place  and  stopping  it  at  the  right  moment  was  so 
strong  as  to  deter  me  from  trying  any  more  experiments 
on  this  carriage  in  such  a  dangerous  place. 

Such  should  never  be  attempted  except  on  a  large  com- 
mon, at  a  distance  from  a  high  road.  It  may  not,  however, 
be  amiss  to  suggest  that  upon  a  long  extent  of  iron  rail- 
way in  an  open  country  carriages  properly  constructed 
might  make  profitable  voyages,  from  time  to  time,  with 
sails  instead  of  horses ;  for  though  a  constant  or  regular 
intercourse  could  not  be  thus  carried  on,  yet  goods  of  a 
certain  sort,  that  are  salable  at  any  time,  might  be  stored 
till  wind  and  weather  were  favorable. 

When  Bedford  had  read  this  passage,  John  Fordyce  said 
he  had  travelled  hundreds  of  miles  on  the  Western  rail- 
ways where  Mr.  Edgeworth's  sails  could  have  been  applied 
without  a  "  stage-coach  "  to  be  afraid  of  them. 


JACK  THE  DARTER. 

In  one  of  my  journeys  from  Hare  Hatch  to  Birming- 
ham, I  accidentally  met  with  a  person  whom  I,  as  a  me- 
chanic, had  a  curiosity  to  see.  This  was  a  sailor,  who 
had  amused  London  with  a  singular  exhibition  of  dexterity. 
He  was  called  Jack  the  Darter.  He  threw  his  darts, 


JACK  THE  DARTER.  143 

which  consisted  of  thin  rods  of  deal  of  about  half  an  inch 
in  diameter  and  of  a  yard  long,  to  an  amazing  height  and 
distance  ;  for  instance,  he  threw  them  over  what  was  then 
called  the  New  Church  in  the  Strand.  Of  this  feat  I  had 
heard,  but  I  entertained  some  doubts  upon  the  subject. 
I  had  inquired  from  my  friends  where  this  man  could  be 
found,  but  had  not  been  able  to  discover  him.  As  I  was 
driving  towards  Birmingham  in  an  open  carriage  of  a  sin- 
gular construction,  I  overtook  a  man  who  walked  remark- 
ably fast,  but  who  stopped  as  I  passed  him,  and  eyed  my 
equipage  with  uncommon  curiosity.  There  was  some- 
thing in  his  manner  that  made  me  speak  to  him ;  and 
from  the  sort  of  questions  he  asked  about  my  carriage,  I 
found  that  he  was  a  clever  fellow.  -I  soon  learned  that  he 
had  walked  over  the  greatest  part  of  England,  and  that  he 
was  perfectly  acquainted  with  London.  It  came  into  my 
head  to  inquire  whether  he  had  ever  seen  the  exhibition 
about  which  I  was  so  desirous  to  be  informed. 

"  Lord  !  sir,"  said  he,  "  I  am  myself  Jack  the  Darter." 
He  had  a  roll  of  brown  paper  in  his  hand,  which  he 
unfolded,  and  soon  produced  a  bundle  of  the  light  deal 
sticks  which  he  had  the  power  of  darting  to  such  a  dis- 
tance. He  readily  consented  to  gratify  my  curiosity  ;  and 
after  he  had  thrown  some  of  them  to  a  prodigious  height, 
I  asked  him  to  throw  some  of  them  horizontally.  At  the 
first  trial  he  threw  one  of  them  eighty  yards  with  great 
ease.  I  observed  that  he  coiled  a  small  string  round  the 
stick,  by  which  he  gave  it  a  rotary  motion  that  preserved 
it  from  altering  its  course  ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  allowed 
the  arm  whicR  threw  it  time  to  exercise  its  whole  force. 

If  anything  be  simply  thrown  from  the  hand,  it  is  clear 
that  it  can  acquire  no  greater  velocity  than  that  of  the 
hand  that  throws  it ;  but  if  the  body  that  is  thrown  passes 


144  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

through  a  greater  space  than  the  hand,  whilst  the  hand 
continues  to  communicate  motion  to  the  body  to  be  im- 
pelled, the  body  will  acquire  a  velocity  nearly  double  to 
that  of  the  hand  which  throws  it.  The  ancients  were 
aware  of  this  ;  and  they  wrapped  a  thong  of  leather  round 
their  javelins,  by  which  they  could  throw  them  with  addi- 
tional violence.  This  invention  did  not,  I  believe,  belong 
to  the  Greeks ;  nor  do  I  remember  its  being  mentioned 
by  Homer  or  Xenophon.  It  was  in  use  among  the  Ro- 
mans, but  at  what  time  it  was  introduced  or  laid  aside  I 
know  not.  Whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  science  of 
projectiles  will  perceive  that  this  invention  is  well  worthy 
of  their  attention. 


A  ONE-WHEELED  CHAISE. 

After  having  satisfied  my  curiosity  about  Jack  the 
Darter,  I  proceeded  to  Birmingham.  I  mentioned  that  I 
travelled  in  a  carriage  of  a  singular  construction.  It  was 
a  one-wheeled  chaise,  which  I  had  had  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  going  conveniently  in  narrow  roads.  It  was  made 
fast  by  shafts  to  the  horse's  sides,  and  was  furnished  with  two 
weights  or  counterpoises,  that  hung  below  the  shafts.  The 
seat  was  not  more  than  eight  and  twenty  or  thirty  inches 
from  the  ground,  in  order  to  bring  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  the  whole  as  low  as  possible.  The  footboard  turned 
upon  hinges  fastened  to  the  shafts,  so  that  when  it  met 
with  any  obstacle  it  gave  way,  and  my  legs  were  warned 
to  lift  themselves  up.  In  going  through  water  my  legs 
were  secured  by  leathers,  which  folded  up  like  the  sides 
of  bellows ;  by  this  means  I  was  pretty  safe  from  wet.  On 


ONE-WHEELED   GIG.  145 

my  road  to  Birmingham  I  passed  through  Long  Compton, 
in  Warwickshire,  on  a  Sunday.  The  people  were  return- 
ing from  church,  and  numbers  stopped  to  gaze  at  me. 
There  is,  or  was,  a  shallow  ford  near  the  town,  over  which 
there  was  a  very  narrow  bridge  for  horse  and  foot  pas- 
sengers, but  not  sufficiently  wide  for  wagons  or  chaises. 
Towards  this  bridge  I  drove.  The  people,  not  perceiving 
the  structure  of  my  one- wheeled  vehicle,  called  to  me  with 
great  eagerness  to  warn  me  that  the  bridge  was  too  nar- 
row for  carriages.  I  had  an  excellent  horse,  which  went 
so  fast  as  to  give  but  little  time  for  examination.  The 
louder  they  called,  the  faster  I  drove ;  and  when  I  had 
passed  the  bridge,  they  shouted  after  me  with  surprise.  I 
got  on  to  Shipstone  upon  Stone ;  but  before  I  had  dined 
there  I  found  that  my  fame  had  overtaken  me.  My  car- 
riage was  put  into  a  coach-house,  so  that  those  who  came 
from  Long  Compton,  not  seeing  it,  did  not  recognize  me. 
I  therefore  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  all  the  exaggera- 
tions and  strange  conjectures  which  were  made  by  those 
who  related  my  passage  over  the  narrow  bridge.  There 
were  posts  on  the  bridge,  to  prevent,  as  I  suppose,  more 
than  one  horseman  from  passing  at  once.  Some  of  the 
spectators  asserted  that  my  carriage  had  gone  over  these 
posts ;  others  said  that  it  had  not  wheels,  which  was  in- 
deed literally  true ;  but  they  meant  to  say  that  it  was 
without  any  wheel.  Some  were  sure  that  no  carriage 
ever  went  so  fast ;  and  all  agreed  that  at  the  end  of  the 
bridge,  where  the  floods  had  laid  the  road  for  some  way 
under  water,  my  carriage  swam  on  the  surface  of  the 
water. 


10 


VIII. 

JAMES  WATT. 

"T  TNCLE  FRITZ,"  said  Mabel  Liddell,the  next  after- 

T^  noon  that  our  friends  had  gathered  together  for  a 
reading,  "  would  it  not  be  well  for  us  all  to  go  down  into 
the  kitchen  this  afternoon,  and  watch  the  steam  come  out 
of  the  kettle  as  Ellen  makes  tea  for  us? " 

"Why  should  it  be  well,  Mabel?"  said  Colonel  Ing- 
ham.  "  For  my  part,  I  should  prefer  to  remain  in  my  own 
room,  more  especially  as  I  consider  my  armchair  to  be 
more  suited  to  the  comfort  of  one  already  on  the  down- 
ward path  in  life  than  is  the  kitchen  table,  where  we  should 
have  to  sit  should  we  invade  the  premises  of  our  friends 
below." 

"  I  was  thinking,"  said  Mabel,  "  of  the  manner  in  which 
James  Watt  when  a  child  invented  the  steam-engine, 
from  observing  the  motion  of  the  top  of  the  teakettle ; 
and  as  we  are  to  read  about  Watt  this  afternoon  I  thought 
we  might  be  in  a  more  fit  condition  to  understand  his 
invention,  and  might  more  fully  comprehend  his  frame  of 
mind  while  perfecting  his  great  work,  should  we  also  fix 
our  eyes  and  minds  on  the  top  of  the  teakettle  in  Ellen's 
kitchen." 

"Mabel,  my  child,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "you  talk  like 
a  book,  and  a  very  interesting  one  at  that ;  but  I  think, 
as  the  youngest  of  us  would  say,  that  you  are  just  a  little 


WATT  AND    WATTS.  147 

off  in  your  remarks.  And  as  I  observe  that  Clem,  who  is 
going  to  read  this  afternoon,  desires  to  deliver  a  sermon 
of  which  your  conversation  seems  to  be  the  text,  I  will 
request  all  to  listen  tp  him  before  we  consider  seriously 
vacating  this  apartment,  however  poor  it  may  be,"  —  and 
he  glanced  fondly  around  at  the  comfortable  arrangements 
that  everywhere  pervaded  the  study,  — "  and  seek  the 
regions  below." 

"  I  only  wanted  to  say,"  began  Clem,  "  that  although 
Watt  did  on  one  occasion  (in  his  extreme  youth)  look  at  a 
teakettle  with  some  interest,  he  was  not  in  the  habit,  at  the 
time  when  he  devoted  most  thought  to  the  steam-engine, 
of  having  a  teakettle  continually  before  him  that  he  might 
gain  inspiration  from  observing  the  steam  issue  from  its 
nose.  And,  as  Watt  dispensed  with  this  aid,  I  have  no 
doubt  that  we  may  do  so  as  well,  contenting  ourselves 
with  the  results  of  the  experiments  in  the  vaporization  of 
water,  which  Ellen  is  now  conducting  in  the  form  of  tea. 
Besides  all  this,  however,  I  do  want  to  say  some  things, 
before  we  read  aloud  this  afternoon  (I  hope  this  is  n't 
really  too  much  like  a  sermon),  about  the  steam-engine 
and  the  part  that  Watt  had  in  perfecting  it." 

At  this  point  the  irrepressible  Mabel  was  heard  to  whis- 
per to  Bedford,  who  sat  next  her  :  "  Was  n't  it  curious  that 
the  same  mind  which  grasped  the  immense  capabilities 
of  the  steam-engine  should  have  been  able  also  to  con- 
struct such  a  delicate  lyric  as 

'  How  doth  the  little  busy  bee 
Improve  each  shining  hour '  ? " 

"Mabel,"  said  Colonel  Ingham,  "you  are  absolutely 
unbearable.  If  you  do  not  keep  in  better  order  I  shall  be 
sorry  that  I  dissuaded  you  from  descending  to  the  kitchen. 


148  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

I  see  nothing  incongruous  myself  in  indulging  in  mechan- 
ical experiments,  and  in  throwing  one's  thoughts  into  the 
form  of  verse,"  —  here  the  old  gentleman  colored  slightly, 
as  though  he  recollected  something  of  the  sort,  —  "  but  it 
may  be  well  to  counteract  the  impression  your  conversation 
may  have  made  by  stating  that  Isaac  Watts  did  not  invent 
the  steam-engine,  nor  did  James  Watt  write  the  beautiful 
words  you  have  just  quoted.  —  Now,  Clem,  I  believe  you 
have  the  floor." 

"  Well,"  said  Clem,  "  I  only  want  the  floor  for  a  short 
time  in  order  to  explain  about  Watt  and  the  steam-engine, 
and  how  much  he  was  the  inventor  of  it,  before  we  begin 
to  read. 

"  There  are  various  points  about  the  steam-engine  which 
are  really  Watt's  invention,  —  the  separate  condenser, 
for  instance,  —  but  the  idea  of  the  steam-engine  was  not 
original  with  him ;  that  is,  when  he  saw  the  steam  in  the 
teakettle  raise  the  lid  and  drop  it  again,  he  was  not  the 
first  to  speculate  on  the  power  of  steam." 

"  Are  you  going  to  read  us  that  part  in  the  book,  Clem  ?  " 
asked  Bedford,  with  some  interest. 

"  Yes,  if  you  like,"  said  Clem.  "  I  guess  it  tells  about  it 
in  Mr.  Smiles's  'Life  of  Watt.'"  So  he  began  to  over- 
haul the  book  he  had  brought,  and  shortly  discovered  the 
anecdote  referred  to  by  Mabel  with  such  interest,  and 
read  it. 

"  On  one  occasion  he  [James  Watt]  was  reproved  by 
Mrs.  Muirhead,  his  aunt,  for  his  indolence  at  the  tea-table. 
1  James  Watt,'  said  the  worthy  lady,  'I  never  saw  such 
an  idle  boy  as  you  are.  Take  a  book,  or  employ  yourself 
usefully ;  for  the  last  hour  you  have  not  spoken  one  word, 
but  taken  off  the  lid  of  that  kettle  and  put  it  on  again, 
holding  now  a  cup  and  now  a  silver  spoon  over  the  steam, 


EARLY  STEAM-ENGINES.  149 

watching  how  it  rises  from  the  spout,  catching  and  count- 
ing the  drops  it  falls  into.'  In  the  view  of  M.  Arago, 
the  little  James  before  the  teakettle,  becomes  the  great 
engineer,  preparing  the  discoveries  which  were  soon  to 
immortalize  him.  In  our  opinion,  the  judgment  of  the 
aunt  was  the  truest.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  mind  of  the  boy  was  occupied  with  philosophical  theo- 
ries on  the  condensation  of  steam,  which  he  compassed 
with  so  much  difficulty  in  his  maturer  years.  This  is  more 
probably  an  afterthought  borrowed  from  his  subsequent 
discoveries.  Nothing  is  commoner  than  for  children  to 
be  amused  with  such  phenomena  in  the  same  way  that 
they  will  form  air-bubbles  in  a  cup  of  tea,  and  watch  them 
sailing  over  the  surface  till  they  burst.  The  probability  is 
that  little  James  was  quite  as  idle  as  he  seemed." 

"  That  is  very  interesting,"  remarked  Mabel.  "  Don't 
you  think  now,  Uncle  Fritz,  we  had  better  go  into  the 
kitchen?"  And  she  looked  appealingly  at  the  old  gen- 
tleman, who  merely  held  up  his  finger  for  silence  as  Clem 
continued  his  lecture. 

"What  I  meant  to  say,"  Clem  went  on,  "  was  that  other 
people  before  Watt  had  found  out  the  power  of  steam,  and 
had  used  it  too.  There  was  one  Hero  of  Alexandria,  who 
lived  about  two  thousand  years  ago,  who  used  steam  for 
many  interesting  purposes,  notably  for  animating  various 
figures  that  took  part  in  the  idolatrous  worship  of  his  time, 
and  thus  in  deceiving  the  common  people.  But  his  con- 
trivances, though  engines  which  went  by  steam,  would 
hardly  be  called  steam-engines.  Between  Hero  of  Alex- 
andria, of  1 60  B.C.,  and  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  of 
1650  A.  D.,  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much  doing 
in  the  way  of  inventing  the  steam-engine.  But  the  Mar- 
quis of  Worcester  in  Charles  II.'s  time  was  a  great  phi- 


150  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

losopher,  and  did  nobody  knows  exactly  what  with  steam. 
But  though  he  did  great  things,  he  did  not  produce  a 
particularly  capable  engine,  though  he  seems  to  have 
known  more  about  steam  than  anybody  else  did  at  his 
time.  After  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  and  before  Watt, 
there  were  three  men  who  did  much  towards  inventing 
and  improving  the  steam-engine.  Their  names  were 
Savery,  Papin,  and  Newcomen.  I  don't  propose  to 
tell  you  about  the  inventions  of  each  one ;  but  it 's 
well  enough  to  remember  that  each  one  did  important 
service  in  getting  the  steam-engine  to  the  point  where 
Watt  took  hold  of  it.  As  it  was  on  Newcomen's  engine 
that  Watt  made  his  first  serious  experiments,  I  think  we 
should  all  like  to  know  something  about  it." 


THE   NEWCOMEN  ENGINE. 

Newcomen's  engine  may  be  thus  briefly  described  :  The 
steam  was  generated  in  a  separate  boiler,  as  in  Savery's 
engine,  from  which  it  was  conveyed  into  a  vertical  cylin- 
der underneath  a  piston  fitting  it  closely,  but  movable 
upwards  and  downwards  through  its  whole  length.  The 
piston  was  fixed  to  a  rod,  which  was  attached  by  a  joint 
or  chain  to  the  end  of  a  lever  vibrating  upon  an  axis,  the 
other  end  being  attached  to  a  rod  working  a  pump. 
When  the  piston  in  the  cylinder  was  raised,  steam  was 
let  into  the  vacated  space  through  a  tube  fitted  into  the 
top  of  the  boiler,  and  mounted  with  a  stopcock.  The 
pump-rod  at  the  further  end  of  the  lever  being  thus  de- 
pressed, cold  water  was  applied  to  the  sides  of  the  cyl- 
inder, on  which  the  steam  within  it  was  condensed,  a 
vacuum  was  produced,  and  the  external  air,  pressing 


NEWCOMERS  PLANS.  151 

upon  the  top  of  the  piston,  forced  it  down  into  the  empty 
cylinder.  The  pump-rod  was  thereby  raised ;  and,  the 
operation  of  depressing  it  being  repeated,  a  power  was 
thus  produced  which  kept  the  pump  continuously  at  work. 
Such,  in  a  few  words,  was  the  construction  and  action  of 
Newcomen's  first  engine.1 

While  the  engine  was  still  in  its  trial  state,  a  curious  ac- 
cident occurred  which  led  to  a  change  in  the  mode  of 
condensation,  and  proved  of  essential  importance  in  es- 
tablishing Newcomen's  engine  as  a  practical  working 
power.  The  accident  was  this  :  in  order  to  keep  the  cyl- 
inder as  free  from  air  as  possible,  great  pains  were  taken 
to  prevent  it  passing  down  by  the  side  of  the  piston,  which 
was  carefully  wrapped  with  cloth  or  leather;  and,  still 
further  to  keep  the  cylinder  air-tight,  a  quantity  of  water 
was  kept  constantly  on  the  upper  side  of  the  piston.  At 
one  of  the  early  trials  the  inventors  were  surprised  to 
see  the  engine  make  several  strokes  in  unusually  quick 
succession ;  and  on  searching  for  the  cause,  they  found  it 
to  consist  in  a  hole  in  the  piston,  which  had  let  the  cold 
water  in  a  jet  into  the  inside  of  the  cylinder,  and  thereby 
produced  a  rapid  vacuum  by  the  condensation  of  the 
continued  steam.  A  new  light  suddenly  broke  upon 
Newcomen.  The  idea  of  condensing  by  injection  of  cold 
water  directly  into  the  cylinder,  instead  of  applying  it  on 
the  outside,  at  once  occurred  to  him  ;  and  he  proceeded 
to  embody  the  expedient  which  had  thus  been  acciden- 
tally suggested  as  part  of  his  machine.  The  result  was 

1  The  first  steam-engines  were  devised  in  order  to  supply  some  motor 
for  the  pumps  which  were  necessary,  all  over  England,  to  keep  the  mines 
free  from  water.  The  locomotive  engine,  as  will  be  seen  later,  owes  its 
birth  to  the  efforts  of  colliery  engineers  to  find  some  means  of  drawing  coal 
bettei  than  the  horse-power  generally  in  use. 


152  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

the  addition  of  the  injection  pipe,  through  which,  when 
the  piston  was  raised  and  the  cylinder  full  of  steam,  a  jet 
of  cold  water  was  thrown  in,  and,  the  steam  being  sud- 
denly condensed,  the  piston  was  at  once  driven  down  by 
the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere. 

An  accident  of  a  different  kind  shortly  after  led  to  the 
improvement  of  Newcomen's  engine  in  another  respect. 
To  keep  it  at  work,  one  man  was  required  to  attend  the 
fire,  and  another  to  turn  alternately  the  two  cocks,  one 
admitting  the  steam  into  the  cylinder,  the  other  admitting 
the  jet  of  cold  water  to  condense  it.  The  turning  of  these 
cocks  was  easy  work,  usually  performed  by  a  boy.  It  was, 
however,  a  very  monotonous  duty,  though  requiring  con- 
stant attention.  To  escape  the  drudgery  and  obtain  an 
interval  for  rest  or  perhaps  for  play,  a  boy  named 
Humphrey  Potter,  who  turned  the  cocks,  set  himself  to 
discover  some  method  of  evading  his  task.  He  must 
have  been  an  ingenious  boy,  as  is  clear  from  the  arrange- 
ment he  contrived  with  this  object.  Observing  the  alter- 
nate ascent  and  descent  of  the  beam  above  his  head,  he 
bethought  him  of  applying  the  movement  to  the  alternate 
raising  and  lowering  of  the  levers  which  governed  the 
cocks.  The  result  was  the  contrivance  of  what  he  called 
the  scoggan  (meaning  presumably  the  loafer  or  lazy  boy), 
consisting  of  a  catch  worked  by  strings  from  the  beam  of 
the  engine.  This  arrangement,  when  tried,  was  found  to 
answer  the  purpose  intended.  The  action  of  the  engine 
was  thus  made  automatic ;  and  the  arrangement,  though 
rude,  not  only  enabled  Potter  to  enjoy  his  play,  but  it  had 
the  effect  of  improving  the  working  power  of  the  engine 
itself;  the  number  of  strokes  which  it  made  being  in- 
creased from  six  or  eight  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  in  the  min- 
ute. This  invention  was  afterward  greatly  improved  by 


GRADUAL  IMPROVEMENT,  153 

Mr.  Henry  Beighton,  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  who  added 
the  plug-rod  and  hand-gear.  He  did  away  with  the 
catches  and  strings  of  the  boy  Potter's  rude  apparatus, 
and  substituted  a  rod  suspended  from  the  beam,  which 
alternately  opened  and  shut  the  tappets  attached  to  the 
steam  and  injection  cocks. 

Thus,  step  by  step,  Newcomen's  engine  grew  in  power 
and  efficiency,  and  became  more  and  more  complete  as  a 
self-acting  machine.  It  will  be  observed  that,  like  all 
other  inventions,  it  was  not  the  product  of  any  one  man's 
ingenuity,  but  of  many.  One  contributed  one  improve- 
ment, and  another  another.  The  essential  features  of  the 
atmospheric  engine  were  not  new.  The  piston  and  cylin- 
der had  been  known  as  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Hero. 
The  expansive  force  of  steam  and  the  creation  of  a  vac- 
uum by  its  condensation  had  been  known  to  the  Marquis 
of  Worcester,  Savery,  Papin,  and  many  more.  Newcomen 
merely  combined  in  his  machine  the  result  of  their  varied 
experience  ;  and,  assisted  by  the  persons  who  worked  with 
him,  down  to  the  engine-boy  Potter,  he  advanced  the  in- 
vention several  important  stages ;  so  that  the  steam-engine 
was  no  longer  a  toy  or  a  scientific  curiosity,  but  had  be- 
come a  powerful  machine  capable  of  doing  useful  work. 


JAMES   WATT  AND   THE   STEAM-ENGINE. 

It  was  in  the  year  1759  that  Robison1  first  called  the 
attention  of  his  friend  Watt  to  the  subject  of  the  steam- 
engine.  Robison  was  then  only  in  his  twentieth,  and 

1  John  Robison,  at  this  time  a  student  at  Glasgow  College,  and  after- 
wards Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  at  Edinburgh.  He  was  at  one  time 
Master  of  the  Marine  Cadet  Academy  at  Cronstadt. 


I  54  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

Watt  in  his  twenty-third  year.  Robison's  idea  was  that 
the  power  of  steam  might  be  advantageously  applied  to 
the  driving  of  wheel-carriages ;  and  he  suggested  that  it 
would  be  the  most  convenient  for  the  purpose  to  place 
the  cylinder  with  its  open  end  downwards  to  avoid  the 
necessity  of  using  a  working-beam.  Watt  admits  that  he 
was  very  ignorant  of  the  steam-engine  at  the  time ;  never- 
theless, he  began  making  a  model  with  two  cylinders  of 
tin  plate,  intending  that  the  pistons  and  their  connecting- 
rods  should  act  alternately  on  two  pinions  attached  to  the 
axles  of  the  carriage-wheels.  But  the  model,  being  slightly 
and  inaccurately  made,  did  not  answer  his  expectations. 
Other  difficulties  presented  themselves,  and  the  scheme 
was  laid  aside  because  Robison  left  Glasgow  to  go  to  sea. 
Indeed,  mechanical  science  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  loco- 
motive. Robison's  idea  had,  however,  dropped  silently 
into  the  mind  of  his  friend,  where  it  grew  from  day  to  day, 
slowly  and  at  length  fruitfully. 

At  his  intervals  of  leisure  and  in  the  quiet  of  his  even- 
ings, Watt  continued  to  prosecute  his  various  studies.  He 
was  shortly  attracted  by  the  science  of  chemistry,  then  in 
its  infancy.  Dr.  Black  was  at  that  time  occupied  with  the 
investigations  which  led  to  his  discovery  of  the  theory  of 
latent  heat,  and  it  is  probable  that  his  familiar  conversations 
with  Watt  on  the  subject  induced  the  latter  to  enter  upon 
a  series  of  experiments  with  the  view  of  giving  the  theory 
some  practical  direction.  His  attention  again  and  again 
reverted  to  the  steam-engine,  though  he  had  not  yet  seen 
even  a  model  of  one.  Steam  was  as  yet  almost  unknown 
in  Scotland  as  a  working  power.  The  first  engine  was 
erected  at  Elphinstone  Colliery,  in  Stirlingshire,  about  the 
year  1750;  and  the  second  more  than  ten  years  later,  at 
Govan  Colliery,  near  Glasgow,  where  it  was  known  by  the 


WATT'S  EXPERIMENTS,  155 

startling  name  of  "  The  Firework."  This  had  not,  how- 
ever, been  set  up  at  the  time  Watt  had  begun  to  inquire 
into  the  subject.  But  he  found  that  the  college  possessed 
the  model  of  a  Newcomen  engine  for  the  use  of  the  Nat- 
ural Philosophy  class,  which  had  been  sent  to  London  for 
repair.  On  hearing  of  its  existence,  he  suggested  to  his 
friend  Dr.  Anderson,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy,  the 
propriety  of  getting  back  the  model ;  and  a  sum  of  money 
was  placed  by  the  Senatus  at  the  professor's  disposal,  "  to 
recover  the  steam-engine  from  Mr.  Sisson,  instrument- 
maker  in  London." 

In  the  mean  time  Watt  sought  to  learn  all  that  had  been 
written  on  the  subject  of  the  steam-engine.  He  ascer- 
tained from  Desaguliers,  Switzer,  and  other  writers,  what 
had  been  accomplished  by  Savery,  Newcomen,  Beighton, 
and  others;  and  he  went  on  with  his  own  independent 
experiments.  His  first  apparatus  was  of  the  simplest  pos- 
sible kind.  He  used  common  apothecaries'  phials  for  his 
steam  reservoirs,  and  canes  hollowed  out  for  his  steam- 
pipes.  In  1761  he  proceeded  to  experiment  on  the  force 
of  steam  by  means  of  a  small  Papin's  digester  and  a  syringe. 
The  syringe  was  only  the  third  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  fitted 
with  a  solid  piston  ;  and  it  was  connected  with  the  digester 
by  a  pipe  furnished  with  a  stopcock,  by  which  the  steam 
was  admitted  or  shut  off  at  will.  It  was  also  itself  provided 
with  a  stopcock,  enabling  a  communication  to  be  opened 
between  the  syringe  and  the  outer  air  to  permit  the  steam 
in  the  syringe  to  escape.  The  apparatus,  though  rude, 
enabled  the  experimenter  to  ascertain  some  important 
facts.  When  the  steam  in  the  digester  was  raised  and  the 
cock  turned,  enabling  it  to  rush  against  the  lower  side  of 
the  piston,  he  found  that  the  expansive  force  of  the  steam 
raised  a  weight  of  fifteen  pounds,  with  which  the  piston 


156  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

was  loaded.  Then  on  turning  on  the  cock  and  shutting  off 
the  connection  with  the  digester  at  the  same  time  that  a 
passage  was  opened  to  the  air,  the  steam  was  allowed  to 
escape,  when  the  weight  upon  the  piston,  being  no  longer 
counteracted,  immediately  forced  it  to  descend. 

Watt  saw  that  it  would  be  easy  to  contrive  that  the 
cocks  should  be  turned  by  the  machinery  itself  with  per- 
fect regularity.  But  there  was  an  objection  to  this  method. 
Water  is  converted  into  vapor  as  soon  as  its  elasticity  is 
sufficient  to  overcome  the  weight  of  the  air  which  keeps  it 
down.  Under  the  ordinary  pressure  of  the  atmosphere 
water  acquires  this  necessary  elasticity  at  212° ;  but  as  the 
steam  in  the  digester  was  prevented  from  escaping,  it  ac- 
quired increased  heat,  and  by  consequence  increased  elas- 
ticity. Hence  it  was  that  the  steam  which  issued  from  the 
digester  was  not  only  able  to  support  the  piston  and  the 
air  which  pressed  upon  its  upper  surface,  but  the  additional 
load  with  which  the  piston  was  weighted.  With  the  im- 
perfect mechanical  construction,  however,  of  those  days, 
there  was  a  risk  lest  the  boiler  should  be  burst  by  the 
steam,  which  was  apt  to  force  its  way  through  the  ill-made 
joints  of  the  machine.  This,  conjoined  with  the  great  ex- 
penditure of  steam  on  the  high-pressure  system,  led  Watt 
to  abandon  the  plan ;  and  the  exigencies  of  his  business 
for  a  time  prevented  him  from  pursuing  his  experiments. 

At  length  the  Newcomen  model  arrived  from  London ; 
and  in  1763  the  little  engine,  which  was  destined  to  be- 
come so  famous,  was  put  into  the  hands  of  Watt.  The 
boiler  was  somewhat  smaller  than  an  ordinary  teakettle. 
The  cylinder  of  the  engine  was  only  of  two  inches  diameter 
and  six  inches  stroke.  Watt  at  first  regarded  it  as  merely 
"  a  fine  plaything."  It  was,  however,  enough  to  set  him 
upon  a  track  of  thinking  which  led  to  the  most  important 


LATENT  HEAT.  157 

results.  When  he  had  repaired  the  model  and  set  it  to 
work,  he  found  that  the  boiler,  though  apparently  large 
enough,  could  not  supply  steam  in  sufficient  quantity,  and 
only  a  few  strokes  of  the  piston  could  be  obtained,  when 
the  engine  stopped.  The  fire  was  urged  by  blowing,  and 
more  steam  was  produced;  but  still  it  would  not  work 
properly.  Exactly  at  the  point  at  which  another  man 
would  have  abandoned  the  task  in  despair,  the  mind  of 
Watt  became  thoroughly  roused.  "  Everything,"  says 
Professor  Robison,  "  was  to  him  the  beginning  of  a  new 
and  serious  study ;  and  I  knew  that  he  would  not  quit  it 
till  he  had  either  discovered  its  insignificance  or  had  made 
something  of  it."  Thus  it  happened  with  the  phenomena 
presented  by  the  model  of  the  steam-engine.  Watt  re- 
ferred to  his  books,  and  endeavored  to  ascertain  from  them 
by  what  means  he  might  remedy  the  defects  which  he 
found  in  the  model ;  but  they  could  tell  him  nothing.  He 
then  proceeded  with  an  independent  course  of  experi- 
ments, resolved  to  work  out  the  problem  for  himself.  In 
the  course  of  his  inquiries  he  came  upon  a  fact  which, 
more  than  any  other,  led  his  mind  into  the  train  of  thought 
which  at  last  conducted  him  to  the  invention  of  which  the 
results  were  destined  to  prove  so  stupendous.  This  fact 
was  the  existence  of  latent  heat. 

In  order  to  follow  the  track  of  investigation  pursued  by 
Watt,  it  is  necessary  for  a  moment  to  revert  to  the  action 
of  the  Newcomen  pumping-engine.  A  beam,  moving 
upon  a  centre,  had  affixed  to  one  end  of  it  a  chain  attached 
to  the  piston  of  the  pump,  and  at  the  other  a  chain  at- 
tached to  a  piston  that  fitted  into  the  steam-cylinder.  It 
was  by  driving  this  latter  piston  up  and  down  the  cylinder 
that  the  pump  was  worked.  To  communicate  the  neces- 
sary movement  to  the  piston,  the  steam  generated  in  a 


158  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

boiler  was  admitted  to  the  bottom  of  the  cylinder,  forcing 
out  the  air  through  a  valve,  where  its  pressure  on  the  under 
side  of  the  piston  counterbalanced  the  pressure  of  the  at- 
mosphere on  its  upper  side,  The  piston,  thus  placed  be- 
tween two  equal  forces,  was  drawn  up  to  the  top  of  the 
cylinder  by  the  greater  weight  of  the  pump-gear  at  the 
opposite  extremity  of  the  beam.  The  steam,  so  far,  only 
discharged  the  office  of  the  air  it  displaced ;  but  if  the  air 
had  been  allowed  to  remain,  the  piston  once  at  the  top  of 
the  cylinder  could  not  have  returned,  being  pressed  as 
much  by  the  atmosphere  underneath  as  by  the  atmosphere 
above  it.  The  steam,  on  the  contrary,  which  was  admitted 
by  the  exclusion  of  air,  could  be  condensed,  and  a  vacuum 
created,  by  injecting  cold  water  through  the  bottom  of  the 
cylinder.  The  piston,  being  now  unsupported,  was  forced 
down  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  on  its  upper  sur- 
face. When  the  piston  reached  the  bottom,  the  steam  was 
again  let  in,  and  the  process  was  repeated.  Such  was  the 
engine  in  ordinary  use  for  pumping  water  at  the  time  that 
Watt  began  his  investigations. 

Among  his  other  experiments,  he  constructed  a  boiler 
which  showed  by  inspection  the  quantity  of  water  evap- 
orated in  any  given  time,  and  the  quantity  of  steam  used 
in  every  stroke  of  the  engine.  He  was  astonished  to  dis- 
cover that  a  small  quantity  of  water  in  the  form  of  steam 
heated  a  large  quantity  of  cold  water  injected  into  the 
cylinder  for  the  purpose  of  cooling  it ;  and  upon  further 
examination  he  ascertained  that  steam  heated  six  times 
its  weight  of  cold  water  to  212°,  which  was  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  steam  itself.  "  Being  struck  with  this  remark- 
able fact,"  says  Watt,  "  and  not  understanding  the  reason 
of  it,  I  mentioned  it  to  my  friend  Dr.  Black,  who  then 
explained  to  me  his  doctrine  of  latent  heat,  which  he  had 


CONDENSA  TION.  I  5  9 

taught  for  some  time  before  this  period  (the  summer  of 
1764)  ;  but  having  myself  been  occupied  by  the  pursuits 
of  business,  if  I  had  heard  of  it  I  had  not  attended  to  it, 
when  I  thus  stumbled  upon  one  of  the  material  facts  by 
which  that  beautiful  theory  is  supported." 

When  Watt  found  that  water  in  its  conversion  into 
vapor  became  such  a  reservoir  of  heat,  he  was  more 
than  ever  bent  on  economizing  it ;  for  the  great  waste  of 
heat  involving  so  heavy  a  consumption  of  fuel  was  felt  to 
be  the  principal  obstacle  to  the  extended  employment  of 
steam  as  a  motive  power.  He  accordingly  endeavored, 
with  the  same  quantity  of  fuel,  at  once  to  increase  the 
production  of  steam  and  to  diminish  its  waste.  He 
increased  the  heating  surface  of  the  boiler  by  making 
flues  through  it ;  he  even  made  his  boiler  of  wood,  as 
being  a  worse  conductor  of  heat  than  the  brickwork 
which  surrounds  common  furnaces ;  and  he  cased  the 
cylinders  and  all  the  conducting  pipes  in  materials  which 
conducted  heat  very  slowly.  But  none  of  these  con- 
trivances were  effectual ;  for  it  turned  out  that  the  chief 
expenditure  of  steam,  and  consequently  of  fuel,  in  the 
Newcomen  engine,  was  occasioned  by  the  reheating  of 
the  cylinder  after  the  steam  had  been  condensed,  and 
the  cylinder  was  consequently  cooled  by  the  injection 
into  it  of  the  cold  water.  Nearly  four  fifths  of  the  whole 
steam  employed  was  condensed  on  its  first  admission, 
before  the  surplus  could  act  upon  the  piston.  Watt 
therefore  came  to  the  conclusion  that  to  make  a  perfect 
steam-engine  it  was  necessary  that  the  cylinder  should  be 
always  as  hot  as  the  steam  that  entered  it ;  but  it  was 
equally  necessary  that  the  steam  should  be  condensed 
when  the  piston  descended,  nay,  that  it  should  be 
cooled  down  below  100°,  or  a  considerable  amount  of 


160  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

vapor  would  be  given  off,  which  would  resist  the  descent 
of  the  piston,  and  dimmish  the  power  of  the  engine. 
Thus  the  cylinder  was  never  to  be  at  a  less  temperature 
than  212°,  and  yet  at  each  descent  of  the  piston  it  was  to 
be  less  than  100°,  —  conditions  which,  on  the  very  face 
of  them,  seemed  to  be  wholly  incompatible. 

Though  still  occupied  with  his  inquiries  and  experi- 
ments as  to  steam,  Watt  did  not  neglect  his  proper 
business,  but  was  constantly  on  the  look-out  for  im- 
provements in  instrument-making.  A  machine  which  he 
invented  for  drawing  in  perspective  proved  a  success; 
and  he  made  a  considerable  number  of  them  to  order, 
for  customers  in  London  as  well  as  abroad.  He  was 
also  an  indefatigable  reader,  and  continued  to  extend 
his  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  mechanics  by  perusal 
of  the  best  books  on  these  sciences. 

Above  all  subjects,  however,  the  improvement  of  the 
steam-engine  continued  to  keep  the  fastest  hold  upon 
his  mind.  He  still  brooded  over  his  experiments  with 
the  Newcomen  model,  but  did  not  seem  to  make  much 
way  in  introducing  any  practical  improvement  in  its  mode 
of  working.  His  friend  Robison  says  he  struggled  long 
to  condense  with  sufficient  rapidity  without  injection, 
trying  one  experiment  after  another,  finding  out  what 
would  not  do,  and  exhibiting  many  beautiful  specimens 
of  ingenuity  and  fertility  of  resource.  He  continued,  to 
use  his  own  words,  "  to  grope  in  the  dark,  misled  by 
many  an  ignis  fatuus"  It  was  a  favorite  saying  of 
his  that  "  Nature  has  a  weak  side,  if  we  can  only  find 
it  out ;  "  and  he  went  on  groping  and  feeling  for  it, 
but  as  yet  in  vain.  At  length  light  burst  upon  him, 
and  all  at  once  the  problem  over  which  he  had  been 
brooding  was  solved. 


MR.  HARTS  RECOLLECTIONS.  l6l 


THE   SEPARATE   CONDENSER. 

One  Sunday  afternoon,  in  the  spring  of  1765,  he  went 
to  take  an  afternoon  walk  on  the  Green,  then  a  quiet 
grassy  meadow  used  as  a  bleaching  and  grazing  ground. 
On  week  days  the  Glasgow  lasses  came  thither  with  their 
largest  kail-pots  to  boil  their  clothes  in;  and  sturdy 
queans  might  be  seen,  with  coats  kilted,  trampling  blank- 
ets in  their  tubs.  On  Sundays  the  place  was  compara- 
tively deserted ;  and  hence  Watt,  who  lived  close  at  hand, 
went  there  to  take  a  quiet  afternoon  stroll.  His  thoughts 
were  as  usual  running  on  the  subject  of  his  unsatisfactory 
experiments  with  the  Newcomen  engine,  when  the  first 
idea  of  the  separate  condenser  suddenly  flashed  upon 
his  mind.  But  the  notable  discovery  is  best  told  in  his 
own  words,  as  related  to  Mr.  Robert  Hart,  many  years 
after :  — 

"  I  had  gone  to  take  a  walk  on  a  fine  Sabbath  after- 
noon. I  had  entered  the  Green  by  the  gate  at  the  foot  of 
Charlotte  Street,  and  had  passed  the  old  washing-house. 
I  was  thinking  upon  the  engine  at  the  time,  and  had  gone 
as  far  as  the  herd's  house,  when  the  idea  came  into  my 
mind  that  as  the  steam  was  an  elastic  body,  it  would  rush 
into  a  vacuum,  and  if  a  communication  were  made  be- 
tween the  cylinder  and  an  exhausted  vessel,  it  would  rush 
into  it  and  might  be  then  condensed  without  cooling  the 
cylinder.  I  then  saw  that  I  must  get  rid  of  the  condensed 
steam  and  the  injection  water  if  I  used  a  jet,  as  in  New- 
comen's  engine.  Two  ways  of  doing  this  occurred  to  me. 
First,  the  water  might  be  run  off  by  a  descending  pipe,  if 
an  off-let  could  be  got  at  the  depth  of  35  or  36  feet,  and 
any  aii  might  be  extracted  by  a  small  pump.  The  second 
ii 


1 62  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

was  to  make  the  pump  large  enough  to  extract  both  water 
and  air."  He  continued  :  "  I  had  not  walked  farther  than 
the  Golf-house  when  the  whole  thing  was  arranged  in  my 
mind." 

Great  and  prolific  ideas  are  almost  always  simple. 
What  seems  impossible  at  the  outset  appears  so  obvious 
when  it  is  effected,  that  we  are  prone  to  marvel  that  it  did 
not  force  itself  at  once  upon  the  mind.  Late  in  life  Watt, 
with  his  accustomed  modesty,  declared  his  belief  that  if 
he  had  excelled,  it  had  been  by  chance,  and  the  neglect 
of  others.  To  Professor  Jardine  he  said  that  when  it 
was  analyzed  the  invention  would  not  appear  so  great  as 
it  seemed  to  be.  "  In  the  state,"  said  he,  "  in  which  I 
found  the  steam-engine,  it  was  no  great  effort  of  mind  to 
observe  that  the  quantity  of  fuel  necessary  to  make  it 
work  would  forever  prevent  its  extensive  utility.  The 
next  step  in  my  progress  was  equally  easy,  —  to  inquire 
what  was  the  cause  of  the  great  consumption  of  fuel :  this, 
too,  was  readily  suggested,  viz.,  the  waste  of  fuel  which 
was  necessary  to  bring  the  whole  cylinder,  piston,  and 
adjacent  parts  from  the  coldness  of  water  to  the  heat  of 
steam,  no  fewer  than  from  fifteen  to  twenty  times  in  a 
minute."  The  question  then  occurred,  How  was  this  to 
be  avoided  or  remedied?  It  was  at  this  stage  that  the 
idea  of  carrying  on  the  condensation  in  a  separate  vessel 
flashed  upon  his  mind,  and  solved  the  difficulty. 

Mankind  has  been  more  just  to  Watt  than  he  was  to 
himself.  There  was  no  accident  in  the  discovery.  It  had 
been  the  result  of  close  and  continuous  study ;  and  the 
idea  of  the  separate  condenser  was  merely  the  last  step  of 
a  long  journey,  a  step  which  could  not  have  been  taken 
unless  the  road  which  led  to  it  had  been  traversed. 
Dr.  Black  says,  "  This  capital  improvement  flashed  upon 


IMPROVEMENTS.  163 

his  mind  at  once,  and  filled  him  with  rapture,"  —  a  state- 
ment which,  in  spite  of  the  unimpassioned  nature  of  Watt, 
we  can  readily  believe. 

On  the  morning  following  his  Sunday  afternoon's  walk 
on  Glasgow  Green,  Watt  was  up  betimes,  making  arrange- 
ments for  a  speedy  trial  of  his  new  plan.  He  borrowed 
from  a  college  friend  a  large  brass  syringe,  an  inch  and  a 
third  in  diameter,  and  ten  inches  long,  of  the  kind  used 
by  anatomists  for  injecting  arteries  with  wax  previous  to 
dissection.  The  body  of  the  syringe  served  for  a  cylinder, 
the  piston-rod  passing  through  a  collar  of  leather  in  its 
cover.  A  pipe  connected  with  the  boiler  was  inserted  at 
both  ends  for  the  admission  of  steam,  and  at  the  upper 
end  was  another  pipe  to  convey  the  steam  to  the  conden- 
ser. The  axis  of  the  stem  of  the  piston  was  drilled  with  a 
hole,  fitted  with  a  valve  at  its  lower  end,  to  permit  the 
water  produced  by  the  condensed  steam  on  first  filling  the 
cylinder  to  escape.  The  first  condenser  made  use  of  was 
an  improvised  cistern  of  tinned  plate,  provided  with  a 
pump  to  get  rid  of  the  water  formed  by  the  condensation 
of  the  steam,  both  the  condensing- pipes  and  the  air-pump 
being  placed  in  a  reservoir  of  cold  water. 

"The  steam-pipe,"  says  Watt,  "was  adjusted  to  a  small 
boiler.  When  the  steam  was  produced,  it  was  admitted 
into  the  cylinder,  and  soon  issued  through  the  perforation 
of  the  rod  and  at  the  valve  of  the  condenser ;  when  it  was 
judged  that  the  air  was  expelled,  the  steam-cock  was  shut, 
and  the  air-pump  piston-rod  was  drawn  up,  which  leaving 
the  small  pipes  of  the  condenser  in  a  state  of  vacuum,  the 
steam  entered  them,  and  was  condensed.  The  piston  of 
the  cylinder  immediately  rose,  and  lifted  a  weight  of  about 
eighteen  pounds,  which  was  hung  to  the  lower  end  of  the 
piston-rod.  The  exhaustion-cock  was  shut,  the  steam  was 


1 64  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

re-admitted  into  the  cylinder,  and  the  operation  was  re- 
peated. The  quantity  of  steam  consumed  and  the  weights 
it  could  raise  were  observed,  and,  excepting  the  non-appli- 
cation of  the  steam-case  and  external  covering,  the  in- 
vention was  complete  in  so  far  as  regarded  the  savings 
of  steam  and  fuel." 


COMPLETING  THE  INVENTION. 

But  although  the  invention  was  complete  'in  Watt's 
mind,  it  took  him  many  long  and  laborious  years  to  work 
out  the  details  of  the  engine.  His  friend  Robison,  with 
whom  his  intimacy  was  maintained  during  these  interesting 
experiments,  has  given  a  graphic  account  of  the  difficulties 
which  he  successively  encountered  and  overcame.  He 
relates  that  on  his  return  from  the  country,  after  the  col- 
lege vacation  in  1765,  he  went  to  have  a  chat  with  Watt 
and  communicate  to  him  some  observations  he  had  made 
on  Desaguliers'  and  Belidor's  account  of  the  steam-engine. 
He  went  straight  into  the  parlor,  without  ceremony,  and 
found  Watt  sitting  before  the  fire  looking  at  a  little  tin  cis- 
tern which  he  had  on  his  knee.  Robison  immediately 
started  the  conversation  about  steam ;  his  mind,  like  Watt's, 
being  occupied  with  the  means  of  avoiding  the  excessive 
waste  of  heat  in  the  Newcomen  engine.  Watt  all  the 
while  kept  looking  into  the  fire,  and  after  a  time  laid  down 
the  cistern  at  the  foot  of  his  chair,  saying  nothing.  It 
seems  that  Watt  felt  rather  nettled  that  Robison  had 
communicated  to  a  mechanic  of  the  town  a  contrivance 
which  he  had  hit  upon  for  turning  the  cocks  of  his  engine. 
When  Robison  therefore  pressed  his  inquiry,  Watt  at 
length  looked  at  him  and  said  briskly,  "  You  need  not  fash 


RO BISON  AND  BLACK.  165 

yourself  any  more  about  that,  man.  I  have  now  made  an 
engine  that  shall  not  waste  a  particle  of  steam.  It  shall 
all  be  boiling  hot,  —  ay,  and  hot  water  injected,  if  I 
please."  He  then  pushed  the  little  tin  cistern  with  his 
foot  under  the  table. 

Robison  could  learn  no  more  of  the  new  contrivance 
from  Watt  at  that  time  ;  but  on  the  same  evening  he  acci- 
dentally met  a  mutual  acquaintance,  who,  supposing  he 
knew  as  usual  the  progress  of  Watt's  experiments,  observed 
to  him,  "Well,  have  you  seen  Jamie  Watt?"  "Yes." 
"  He  '11  be  in  fine  spirits  now  with  his  engine?  "  "  Yes," 
said  Robison,  "  very  fine  spirits."  "  Gad  !  "  said  the 
other,  "  the  separate  condenser  's  the  thing ;  keep  it  but 
cold  enough,  and  you  may  have  a  perfect  vacuum,  what- 
ever be  the  heat  of  the  cylinder."  This  was  Watt's  secret, 
and  the  nature  of  the  contrivance  was  clear  to  Robison 
at  once. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Watt  had  not  made  a  secret  of 
it  to  his  other  friends.  Indeed,  Robison  himself  admitted 
that  one  of  Watt's  greatest  delights  was  to  communicate 
the  results  of  his  experiments  to  others,  and  set  them  upon 
the  same  road  to  knowledge  with  himself;  and  that  no 
one  could  display  less  of  the  small  jealousy  of  the  trades- 
man than  he  did.  To  his  intimate  friend  Dr.  Black  he 
communicated  the  progress  made  by  him  at  every  stage. 
The  Doctor  kindly  encouraged  him  in  his  struggles, 
cheered  him  in  his  encounter  with  difficulty,  and,  what 
was  of  still  more  practical  value  at  the  time,  helped  him 
with  money  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  his  invention. 
Communicative  though  Watt  was  disposed  to  be,  he  learnt 
reticence  when  he  found  himself  exposed  to  the  depreda- 
tions of  the  smaller  fry  of  inventors.  Robison  says  that 
had  he  lived  in  Birmingham  or  London  at  the  time,  the 


1 66  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

probability  is  that  some  one  or  other  of  the  numerous  har- 
pies who  live  by  sucking  other  people's  brains  would  have 
secured  patents  for  his  more  important  inventions,  and 
thereby  deprived  him  of  the  benefits  of  his  skill,  science, 
and  labor.  As  yet,  however,  there  were  but  few  mechan- 
ics in  Glasgow  capable  of  understanding  or  appreciating 
the  steam-engine ;  and  the  intimate  friends  to  whom  he 
freely  spoke  of  his  discovery  were  too  honorable  to  take 
advantage  of  his  confidence.  Shortly  after  Watt  com- 
municated to  Robison  the  different  stages  of  his  invention, 
and  the  results  at  which  he  had  arrived,  much  to  the 
delight  of  his  friend. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  Newcomen  engine 
the  steam  was  only  employed  for  the  purpose  of  produc- 
ing a  vacuum,  and  that  its  working  power  was  in  the 
down  stroke,  which  was  effected  by  the  pressure  of  the 
air  upon  the  piston  ;  hence  it  is  now  usual  to  call  it  the  at- 
mospheric engine.  Watt  perceived  that  the  air  which  fol- 
lowed the  piston  down  the  cylinder  would  cool  the  latter, 
and  that  steam  would  be  wasted  by  reheating  it.  In  or- 
der, therefore,  to  avoid  this  loss  of  heat,  he  resolved  to 
put  an  air-tight  cover  upon  the  cylinder,  with  a  hole  and 
stuffing-box  for  the  piston-rod  to  slide  through,  and  to 
admit  steam  above  the  piston,  to  act  upon  it  instead 
of  the  atmosphere.  When  the  steam  had  done  its  duty 
in  driving  down  the  piston,  a  communication  was  opened 
between  the  upper  and  lower  part  of  the  cylinder ;  and  the 
same  steam,  distributing  itself  equally  in  both  compart- 
ments, sufficed  to  restore  equilibrium.  The  piston  was 
now  drawn  up  by  the  weight  of  the  pump -gear  ;  the  steam 
beneath  it  was  then  condensed  in  the  separate  vessel 
so  as  to  produce  a  vacuum,  and  a  fresh  jet  of  steam 
from  the  boiler  was  let  in  above  the  piston,  which  forced 


WATTS  MODEL.  l6j 

it  again  to  the  bottom  of  the  cylinder.  From  an  atmos- 
pheric engine  it  had  thus  become  a  true  steam-engine,  and 
with  much  greater  economy  of  steam  than  when  the  air 
did  half  the  duty.  But  it  was  not  only  important  to  keep 
the  air  from  flowing  down  the  inside  of  the  cylinder ;  the 
air  which  circulated  within  cooled  the  metal  and  con- 
densed a  portion  of  the  steam  within ;  and  this  Watt  pro- 
posed to  remedy  by  a  second  cylinder,  surrounding  the 
first,  with  an  interval  between  the  two  which  was  to  be 
kept  full  of  steam. 

One  by  one  these  various  contrivances  were  struck  out, 
modified,  settled,  and  reduced  to  definite  plans,  —  the  sep- 
arate condenser,  the  air  and  water  pumps,  the  use  of  fat 
and  oil  (instead  of  water,  as  in  the  Newcomen  engine)  to 
keep  the  piston  working  in  the  cylinder  air-tight,  and  the 
enclosing  of  the  cylinder  itself  within  another  to  prevent 
the  loss  of  heat.  These  were  all. emanations  from  the  first 
idea  of  inventing  an  engine  working  by  a  piston,  in  which 
the  cylinder  should  be  continually  hot  and  perfectly 
dry.  "When  once,"  says  Watt,  "the  idea  of  separate 
condensation  was  started,  all  these  improvements  followed 
as  corollaries  in  quick  succession,  so  that  in  the  course 
of  one  or  two  days  the  invention  was  thus  far  complete  in 
my  mind." 


WATT  MAKES  HIS   MODEL. 

The  next  step  was  to  construct  a  model  engine  for  the 
purpose  of  embodying  the  invention  in  a  working  form. 
With  this  object,  Watt  hired  an  old  cellar,  situated  in  the 
first  wide  entry  to  the  north  of  the  beef-market  in  King 
Street,  and  then  proceeded  with  his  model.  He  found  it 


1 68  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

much  easier,  however,  to  prepare  his  plan  than  to  execute 
it.  Like  most  ingenious  and  inventive  men,  Watt  was  ex- 
tremely fastidious  ;  and  this  occasioned  considerable  delay 
in  the  execution  of  the  work.  His  very  inventiveness  to 
some  extent  proved  a  hindrance  ;  for  new  expedients  were 
perpetually  occurring  to  him,  which  he  thought  would  be 
improvements,  and  which  he,  by  turns,  endeavored  to 
introduce.  Some  of  these  expedients  he  admits  proved 
fruitless,  and  all  of  them  occasioned  delay.  Another  of 
his  chief  difficulties  was  in  finding  competent  workmen  to 
execute  his  plans.  He  himself  had  been  accustomed  only 
to  small  metal  work,  with  comparatively  delicate  tools, 
and  had  very  little  experience  "  in  the  practice  of  me- 
chanics in  great,"  as  he  termed  it.  He  was  therefore 
under  the  necessity  of  depending,  in  a  great  measure, 
upon  the  handiwork  of  others.  But  mechanics  capable 
of  working  out  Watt's  Designs  in  metal  were  then  with 
difficulty  to  be  found.  The  beautiful  self-action  and 
workmanship  which  have  since  been  called  into  being, 
principally  by  his  own  invention,  did  not  then  exist. 
The  only  available  hands  in  Glasgow  were  the  black- 
smiths and  tinners,  little  capable  of  constructing  articles 
out  of  their  ordinary  walks;  and  even  in  these  they 
were  often  found  clumsy,  blundering,  and  incompetent. 
The  result  was,  that  in  consequence  of  the  malconstruo 
tion  of  the  larger  parts,  Watt's  first  model  was  only  par- 
tially successful.  The  experiments  made  with  it,  however, 
served  to  verify  the  expectations  he  had  formed,  and  to 
place  the  advantages  of  the  invention  beyond  the  reach  of 
doubt.  On  the  exhausting-cock  being  turned,  the  piston, 
when  loaded  with  eighteen  pounds,  ascended  as  quickly 
as  the  blow  of  a  hammer ;  and  the  moment  the  steam- 
cock  was  opened,  it  descended  with  like  rapidity,  though 


DIFFICULTIES.  169 

the  steam  was  weak,  and  the  machine  snifted  at  many 
openings. 

Satisfied  that  he  had  laid  hold  of  the  right  principle  of 
a  working  steam-engine,  Watt  felt  impelled  to  follow  it  to 
an  issue.  He  could  give  his  mind  to  no  other  business 
in  peace  until  this  was  done.  He  wrote  to  a  friend  that 
he  was  quite  barren  on  every  other  subject.  "  My  whole 
thoughts,"  said  he,  "  are  bent  on  this  machine.  I  can 
think  of  nothing  else."  He  proceeded  to  make  another 
and  bigger,  and,  he  hoped,  a  more  satisfactory  engine  in 
the  following  August ;  and  with  that  object  he  removed 
from  the  old  cellar  in  King  Street  to  a  larger  apartment  in 
the  then  disused  pottery,  or  delftwork,  near  the  Broomielaw. 
There  he  shut  himself  up  with  his  assistant,  John  Gardiner, 
for  the  purpose  of  erecting  his  engine.  The  cylinder  was 
five  or  six  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  two-feet  stroke. 
The  inner  cylinder  was  enclosed  in  a  wooden  steam-case, 
and  placed  inverted,  the  piston  working  through  a  hole 
in  the  bottom  of  the  steam-case.  After  two  months  con- 
tinuous application  and  labor  it  was  finished  and  set  to 
work ;  but  it  leaked  in  all  directions,  and  the  piston  was 
far  from  air-tight.  The  condenser  also  was  in  a  bad  way, 
and  needed  many  alterations.  Nevertheless,  the  engine 
readily  worked  with  ten  and  a  half  pounds  pressure  on 
the  inch,  and  the  piston  lifted  a  weight  of  fourteen 
pounds.  The  improvement  of  the  cylinder  and  piston 
continued  Watt's  chief  difficulty,  and  taxed  his  ingenuity 
to  the  utmost.  At  so  low  an  ebb  was  the  art  of  making 
cylinders  that  the  one  he  used  was  not  bored,  but  ham- 
mered, the  collective  mechanical  skill  of  Glasgow  being 
then  unequal  to  the  boring  of  a  cylinder  of  the  simplest 
kind ;  nor,  indeed,  did  the  necessary  appliances  for  the 
purpose  then  exist  anywhere  else.  In  the  Newcomen 


I/O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

engine  a  little  water  was  found  upon  the  upper  surface  of 
the  piston,  and  sufficiently  filled  up  the  interstices  between 
the  piston  and  the  cylinder.  But  when  Watt  employed 
steam  to  drive  down  the  piston,  he  was  deprived  of  this 
resource,  for  the  water  and  steam  could  not  coexist. 
Even  if  he  had  retained  the  agency  of  the  air  above,  the 
drip  of  water  from  the  crevices  into  the  lower  part  of  the 
cylinder  would  have  been  incompatible  with  keeping 
the  cylinder  hot  and  dry,  and,  by  turning  into  vapor  as  it 
fell  upon  the  heated  metal,  it  would  have  impaired  the 
vacuum  during  the  descent  of  the  piston. 

While  he  was  occupied  with  this  difficulty,  and  striving 
to  overcome  it  by  the  adoption  of  new  expedients,  such 
as  leather  collars  and  improved  workmanship,  he  wrote  to 
a  friend,  "  My  old  white-iron  man  is  dead ;  "  the  old  white- 
iron  man,  or  tinner,  being  his  leading  mechanic.  Unhap- 
pily, also,  just  as  he  seemed  to  have  got  the  engine  into 
working  order,  the  beam  broke,  and,  having  great  difficulty 
in  replacing  the  damaged  part,  the  accident  threatened, 
together  with  the  loss  of  his  best  workman,  to  bring  the 
experiment  to  an  end.  Though  discouraged  by  these  mis- 
adventures, he  was  far  from  defeated.  But  he  went  on  as 
before,  battling  down  difficulty  inch  by  inch,  and  holding 
good  the  ground  he  had  won,  becoming  every  day  more 
strongly  convinced  that  he  was  in  the  right  track,  and  that 
the  important  uses  of  the  invention,  could  he  but  find  time 
and  means  to  perfect  it,  were  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt. 
But  how  to  find  the  means  !  Watt  himself  was  a  compar- 
atively poor  man ;  having  no  money  but  what  he  earned 
by  his  business  of  mechanical-instrument  making,  which 
he  had  for  some  time  been  neglecting  through  his  devo- 
tion to  the  construction  of  his  engine.  What  he  wanted 
was  capital,  or  the  help  of  a  capitalist  willing  to  advance 


BOULTON  AND    WATT.  I /I 

him  the  necessary  funds  to  perfect  his  invention.  To 
give  a  fair  trial  to  the  new  apparatus  would  involve  an 
expenditure  of  several  thousand  pounds ;  and  who  on  the 
spot  could  be  expected  to  invest  so  large  a  sum  in  trying 
a  machine  so  entirely  new,  depending  for  its  success  on 
physical  principles  very  imperfectly  understood  ? 

There  was  no  such  help  to  be  found  in  Glasgow.  The 
tobacco  lords,1  though  rich,  took  no  interest  in  steam 
power ;  and  the  manufacturing  class,  though  growing  in 
importance,  had  full  employment  for  their  little  capital 
in  their  own  concerns. 

"  How  Watt  succeeded  in  interesting  Dr.  Roebuck  in 
his  project,  and  thus  obtained  funds  to  continue  his  experi- 
ments ;  how  he  finally  joined  with  Matthew  Boulton  in  the 
great  firm  of  Boulton  and  Watt,  manufacturers  of  steam- 
engines  ;  how  they  pumped  out  all  the  water  in  the  Cornish 
mines ;  and  how  Watt  finally  attained  prosperity  as  well 
as  success,  —  is  an  interesting  story,  but  rather  too  long 
for  these  winter  afternoons ;  and  as  the  story  of  the  in- 
vention of  the  steam-engine  is  substantially  told  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  we  must  stop  our  reading  here,  more 
especially  as  it  seems  to  be  tea-time,  and  I  hear  Ellen 
ringing  the  bell  for  supper." 

1  The  principal  men  of  Glasgow  were  the  importers  of  tobacco 
from  Virginia. 


IX. 

ROBERT  FULTON. 

PHEY  were  to   continue   their  talk  and  reading  by 
following  along   the   developments   in    the    use   of 
steam. 

"Uncle  Fritz,"  said  Fanchon,  "these  agnostics  make 
so  much  fun  of  our  dear  Harry  and  Lucy,  that  they  will 
not  let  me  quote  from  '  The  Botanic  Garden.' " 

Emma  promised  that  they  would  laugh  as  little  as  they 
could. 

"  '  The  Botanic  Garden,'  "  said  Fanchon,  "  was  a 
stately,  and  I  Nam  afraid  some  of  you  would  say  very 
pompous,  poem,  written  by  Dr.  Darwin." 

"  Dr.  Darwin  write  poetry  !  " 

"  It  is  not  the  Dr.  Charles  Darwin  whom  you  have 
heard  of;  it  was  his  grandfather,"  said  Uncle  Fritz. 

And  Fanchon  went  on  :  "  All  I  ever  knew  of  '  The  Bo- 
tanic Garden  '  was  in  the  quotations  of  our  dear  Harry 
and  Lucy  and  Frank.  But  dear  Uncle  Fritz  has  taken 
down  the  book  for  me,  and  here  it  is,  with  its  funny  old 
pictures  of  Ladies'  Slippers  and  such  things." 

"  I  do  not  see  what  Ladies'  Slippers  have  to  do  with 
steam-engines,"  said  Bedford  Long,  scornfully. 

"No  !  "  said  Fanchon,  laughing ;  "  but  I  do,  and  that 
is  the  difference  between  you  and  me.  Because,  you  see, 
I  have  read  '  Harry  and  Lucy,'  and  you  have  not."  And 


THE  RAPID   CAR. 


she  opened  "The  Botanic  Garden  "at  the  place  where 
she  had  put  in  a  mark,  and  read  :  — 

"  Pressed  by  the  ponderous  air,  the  piston  falls 
Resistless,  sliding  through  its  iron  walls  ; 
Quick  moves  the  balance  beam  of  giant  birth, 
Wields  its  large  limbs,  and  nodding  shakes  the  earth. 
The  giant  power,  from  earth's  remotest  caves 
Lifts,  with  strong  arm,  her  dark  reluctant  waves, 
Each  caverned  rock  and  hidden  depth  explores, 
Drags  her  dark  coals,  and  digs  her  shining  ores." 

"  That  is  rather  stilted  poetry,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "  but  a 
hundred  years  ago  people  were  used  to  stilted  poetry.  It 
describes  sufficiently  well  the  original  pumping-  engine  of 
Watt,  and  the  lifting  of  coal  from  the  shafts  of  the  deep 
English  mines.  Now,  it  was  not  till  Watt  had  made  his 
improvements  on  the  pumping-engine,  —  say  in  1  788,  — 
that  it  was  possible  to  go  any  farther  in  the  use  of  steam 
than  its  application  to  such  absolutely  stationary  purposes. 
It  is  therefore,  I  think,  a  good  deal  to  the  credit  of  Dr. 
Darwin,  that  within  three  years  after  Watt's  great  improve- 
ment in  the  condensing-engine  the  Doctor  should  have 
written  this  :  — 

'  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  unconquered  steam,  afar 
Drag  the  slow  barge  or  drive  the  rapid  car.' 

It  was  twelve  years  after  he  wrote  this,  that  Fulton  had 
an  experimental  steamboat  on  the  river  Seine  in  France. 
It  was  sixteen  years  after,  that,  with  one  of  Watt's  own 
engines,  Fulton  drove  the  '  Clermont  '  from  New  York  to 
Albany  in  thirty-six  hours,  and  revolutionized  the  world  in 
doing  it. 

"  Poor  James  Mackintosh  was  in  virtual  exile  in  Calcutta 
at  that  time,  and  he  wrote  this  in  his  journal  :  '  A  boat 


174  STOXIES  OF  INVENTION. 

propelled  by  steam  has  gone  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
upon  the  Hudson  in  thirty-six  hours.  Four  miles  an  hour 
would  bring  Calcutta  within  a  hundred  days  of  London. 
Oh  that  we  had  lived  a  hundred  years  later  ! '  In  less 
than  fifty  years  after  Mackintosh  wrote  those  words,  Cal- 
cutta was  within  thirty  days  of  London. 

"  When  Harry  and  Lucy  read  these  verses  in  1825,  the 
*  rapid  car '  was  still  in  the  future." 

"Yes,"  said  Fanchon;  "but  Harry  says,  'The  rapid 
car  is  to  come,  and  I  dare  say  that  will  be  accomplished 
soon,  papa;  do  not  you  think  it  will?'" 

"  I  have  sometimes  wondered,"  said  Uncle  Fritz, 
"  whether  our  American  word  '  car '  where  the  English  say 
'  wagon '  did  not  come  from  the  '  rapid  car '  of  Dr.  Darwin. 
Read  on,  Fanchon."  And  he  put  his  finger  on  the  lines 
which  Fanchon  read  :  — 

"  Or  on  wide  waving  wings,  expanded,  bear 
The  flying  chariot  through  the  fields  of  air." 

"  Monsieur  ,  the  French  gentleman,  tried  a  light 

steam-engine  for  the  propulsion  of  a  balloon  in  1872  ;  but 
it  does  not  seem  to  have  had  power  enough.  Messrs. 
Renard  and  Krebs,  in  their  successful  flight  of  August  last, 
used  an  electric  battery. 

"  But  we  are  getting  away  from  Fulton,  who  is  really  the 
first  who  drove  the  '  slow  barge,'  and  indeed  made  it  a 
very  fast  one." 

"  Did  you  know  him?  "  asked  Emma  Fortinbras,  whose 
ideas  of  chronology  are  very  vague. 

"  Oh,  no  !  "  said  Uncle  Fritz ;  "  he  died  young  and  be- 
fore my  time.  But  I  did  know  a  personal  companion  and 
friend,  nay,  a  bedfellow  of  his,  Benjamin  Church,  who  was 
with  him  in  Paris  at  one  of  the  crises  of  his  life.  Fulton  had 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS.  1/5 

a  little  steamboat  on  the  river  Seine,  as  I  said  just  now; 
and  he  had  made  interest  with  Napoleon  to  have  it  exam- 
ined by  a  scientific  committee.  Steam  power  was  exactly 
what  Napoleon  wanted,  to  take  his  great  army  across  from 
Boulogne  to  England.  The  day  came  for  the  great  experi- 
ment. Church  and  Fulton  slept,  the  night  before,  in  the 
same  bed  in  their  humble  lodgings  in  Paris.  At  daybreak 
a  messenger  waked  them.  He  had  come  from  the  river 
to  say  that  the  weight  of  boiler  and  machinery  had  been 
too  much  for  the  little  boat,  that  her  timbers  had  given 
way,  and  that  the  whole  had  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the 
river.  But  for  this  misfortune,  the  successful  steamboat 
would  have  sailed  upon  the  Seine,  and,  for  aught  I  know, 
Napoleon's  grandchildren  would  now  be  emperors  of 
England." 

Until  Watt  had  completed  the  structure  of  the  double- 
acting  condensing-engine,  the  application  of  steam  to  any 
but  the  single  object  of  pumping  water  had  been  almost 
impracticable.  It  was  not  enough,  in  order  to  render  it 
applicable  to  general  purposes,  that  the  condensation  of 
the  water  should  take  place  in  a  separate  vessel,  and  that 
steam  itself  should  be  used,  instead  of  atmospheric  pressure, 
as  the  moving  power;  but  it  was  also  necessary  that  the 
steam  should  act  as  well  during  the  ascent  as  during  the 
descent  of  the  piston.  Before  steam  could  be  used  in 
moving  paddle-wheels,  it  was  in  addition  necessary  that  a 
ready  and  convenient  mode  of  making  the  motion  of 
the  piston  continuous  and  rotary,  should  be  discovered. 
All  these  improvements  upon  the  original  form  of  the 
steam-engine  are  due  to  Watt,  and  he  did  not  complete 
their  perfect  combination  before  the  year  1786. 

Evans,  who,  in  this  country,  saw  the  possibility  of  con- 
structing a  double-acting  engine,  even  before  Watt,  and 


176  STORIES  OF  INVENTION: 

had  made  a  model  of  his  machine,  did  not  succeed  in 
obtaining  funds  to  make  an  experiment  upon  a  large  scale 
before  1801.  We  conceive,  therefore,  that  all  those  who 
projected  the  application  of  steam  to  vessels  before  1786, 
may  be  excluded,  without  ceremony,  from  the  list  of  those 
entitled  to  compete  with  Fulton  for  the  honors  of  inven- 
tion. No  one,  indeed,  could  have  seen  the  powerful  ac- 
tion of  a  pumping-engine  without  being  convinced  that 
the  energy  which  was  applied  so  successfully  to  that  single 
purpose,  might  be  made  applicable  to  many  others ;  but 
those  who  entertained  a  belief  that  the  original  atmos- 
pheric engine,  or  even  the  single-acting  engine  of  Watt, 
could  be  applied  to  propel  boats  by  paddle-wheels,  showed 
a  total  ignorance  of  mechanical  principles.  This  is  more 
particularly  the  case  with  all  those  whose  projects  bore  the 
strongest  resemblance  to  the  plan  which  Fulton  afterwards 
carried  successfully  into  effect.  Those  who  approached 
most  nearly  to  the  attainment  of  success,  were  they  who 
were  farthest  removed  from  the  plan  of  Fulton.  His  ap- 
plication was  founded  on  the  properties  of  Watt's  double- 
acting  engine,  and  could  not  have  been  used  at  all,  until 
that  instrument  of  universal  application  had  received  the 
last  finish  of  its  inventor. 

In  this  list  of  failures,  from  proposing  to  do  what  the 
instrument  they  employed  was  incapable  of  performing,  we 
do  not  hesitate  to  include  Savery,  Papin,  Jonathan  Hulls, 
Pe"rier,  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy,  and  all  the  other  names  of 
earlier  date  than  1 786,  whom  the  jealousy  of  the  French 
and  English  nations  have  drawn  from  oblivion  for  the 
purpose  of  contesting  the  priority  of  Fulton's  claims.  The 
only  competitor,  whom  they  might  have  brought  forward 
with  some  shadow  of  plausibility,  is  Watt  himself.  No 
sooner  had  that  illustrious  inventor  completed  his  double- 


FITCH  AND  RUMSEY. 


acting  engine,  than  he  saw  at  a  glance  the  vast  field  of  its 
application.  Navigation  and  locomotion  were  not  omitted  ; 
but  living  in  an  inland  town,  and  in  a  country  possessing 
no  rivers  of  importance,  his  views  were  limited  to  canals 
alone.  In  this  direction  he  saw  an  immediate  objection 
to  the  use  of  any  apparatus,  of  which  so  powerful  an  agent 
as  his  engine  should  be  the  mover  ;  for  it  was  clear,  that 
the  injury  which  would  be  done  to  the  banks  of  the  canal, 
would  prevent  the  possibility  of  its  introduction.  Watt, 
therefore,  after  having  conceived  the  idea  of  a  steamboat, 
laid  it  aside,  as  unlikely  to  be  of  any  practical  value. 

The  idea  of  applying  steam  to  navigation  was  not  con- 
fined to  Europe.  Numerous  Americans  entertained  hopes 
of  attaining  the  same  object,  but,  before  1  786,  with  the 
same  want  of  any  reasonable  hopes  of  success.  Their 
fruitless  projects  were,  however,  rebuked  by  Franklin, 
who,  reasoning  upon  the  capabilities  of  the  engine  in  its 
original  form,  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  all  their  schemes 
impracticable  ;  and  the  correctness  of  his  judgment  is  at 
present  unquestionable. 

Among  those  who,  before  the  completion  of  Watt's  in- 
vention, attempted  the  structure  of  steamboats,  must  be 
named  with  praise  Fitch  and  Rumsey.  They,  unlike 
those  whose  names  have  been  cited,  were  well  aware  of  the 
real  difficulties  which  they  were  to  overcome  ;  and  both 
were  the  authors  of  plans  which,  if  the  engine  had  been 
incapable  of  further  improvement,  might  have  had  a  par- 
tial and  limited  success.  Fitch's  trial  was  made  in  1783, 
and  Rumsey's  in  1787.  The  latter  date  is  subsequent  to 
Watt's  double-acting  engine  ;  but  as  the  project  consisted 
merely  in  pumping  in  water,  to  be  afterwards  forced  out  at 
the  stern,  the  single-acting  engine  was  probably  employed. 
Evans,  whose  engine  might  have  answered  the  purpose, 

12 


178  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

was  employed  in  the  daily  business  of  millwright;  and 
although  he  might,  at  any  time,  have  driven  these  com- 
petitors from  the  field,  he  took  no  steps  to  apply  his 
dormant  invention. 

Fitch,  who  had  watched  the  graceful  and  rapid  way  of 
the  Indian  canoe,  saw  in  the  oscillating  motion  of  the  old 
pumping-engine  the  means  of  impelling  paddles  in  a  man- 
ner similar  to  that  given  them  by  the  human  arm.  This 
idea  is  extremely  ingenious,  and  was  applied  in  a  simple 
and  beautiful  manner.  But  the  engine  was  yet  too  feeble 
and  cumbrous  to  yield  an  adequate  force ;  and  when  it 
received  its  great  improvement  from  Watt,  a  more  efficient 
mode  of  propulsion  had  become  practicable,  and  must 
have  superseded  Fitch's  paddles  had  they  even  come  into 
general  use. 

The  experiments  of  Fitch  and  Rumsey  in  the  United 
States,  although  generally  considered  unsuccessful,  did  not 
deter  others  from  similar  attempts.  The  great  rivers  and 
arms  of  the  sea  which  intersect  the  Atlantic  coast,  and, 
still  more,  the  innumerable  navigable  arms  of  the  Father 
of  Waters,  appeared  to  call  upon  the  ingenious  machinist 
to  contrive  means  for  their  more  convenient  navigation. 

The  improvement  of  the  engine  by  Watt  was  now  famil- 
iarly known  ;  and  it  was  evident  that  it  possessed  sufficient 
powers  for  the  purpose.  The  only  difficulty  which  existed, 
was  in  the  mode  of  applying  it.  The  first  person  who 
entered  into  the  inquiry  was  John  Stevens,  of  Hokoken, 
who  commenced  his  researches  in  1791.  In  these  he  was 
steadily  engaged  for  nine  years,  when  he  became  the  asso- 
ciate of  Chancellor  Livingston  and  Nicholas  Roosevelt. 
Among  the  persons  employed  by  this  association  was 
Brunei,  who  has  since  become  distinguished  in  Europe  as 
the  inventor  of  the  block  machinery  used  in  the  British 


FULTON  AND   LIVINGSTON. 

navy-yards,  and  as  the  engineer  of  the  tunnel  beneath  the 
Thames. 

Even  with  the  aid  of  such  talent,  the  efforts  of  this  as- 
sociation were  unsuccessful,  —  as  we  now  know,  from  no 
error  in  principle,  but  from  defects  in  the  boat  to  which  it 
was  applied.  The  appointment  of  Livingston  as  ambas- 
sador to  France  broke  up  this  joint  effort ;  and,  like  all 
previous  schemes,  it  was  considered  abortive,  and  con- 
tributed to  throw  discredit  upon  all  undertakings  of  the 
kind.  A  grant  of  exclusive  privileges  on  the  waters  of  the 
State  of  New  York  was  made  to  this  association  without 
any  difficulty,  it  being  believed  that  the  scheme  was  little 
short  of  madness. 

Livingston,  on  his  arrival  in  France,  found  Fulton  dom- 
iciliated  with  Joel  Barlow.  The  conformity  in  their  pur- 
suits led  to  intimacy,  and  Fulton  speedily  communicated 
to  Livingston  the  scheme1  which  he  had  laid  before  Earl 
Stanhope  in  1793.  Livingston  was  so  well  pleased  with  it 
that  he  at  once  offered  to  provide  the  funds  necessary  for 
an  experiment,  and  to  enter  into  a  contract  for  Fulton's 
aid  in  introducing  the  method  into  the  United  States,  pro- 
vided the  experiment  were  successful. 

Fulton  had,  in  his  early  discussion  with  Lord  Stanhope, 
repudiated  the  idea  of  an  apparatus  acting  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  foot  of  an  aquatic  bird,  and  had  proposed 
paddle-wheels  in  its  stead.  On  resuming  his  inquiries  after 
his  arrangements  with  Livingston,  it  occurred  to  him  to 
compose  wheels  with  a  set  of  paddles  revolving  upon  an 

1  Earl  Stanhope,  among  other  projects,  had  conceived  "  the  hope  of  be- 
ing able  to  apply  the  steam-engine  to  navigation  by  the  aid  of  a  peculiar 
apparatus  modelled  after  the  foot  of  an  aquatic  fowl."  Fulton,  on  being 
consulted  by  the  Earl,  doubted  the  feasibility,  and  suggested  the  very 
meanr.  which  he  afterward  made  successful  upon  the  Hudson. 


I  SO  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

endless  chain  extending  from  the  stem  to  the  stern  of  the 
boat.  It  is  probable  that  the  apparent  want  of  success 
which  had  attended  the  experiments  of  Symington  1  led 
him  to  doubt  the  correctness  of  his  original  views. 

That  such  doubt  should  be  entirely  removed,  he  had 
recourse  to  a  series  of  experiments  upon  a  small  scale. 
These  were  performed  at  Plombieres,  a  French  watering- 
place,  where  he  spent  the  summer  of  1802.  In  these  ex- 
periments the  superiority  of  the  paddle-wheel  over  every 
other  method  of  propulsion  that  had  yet  been  proposed, 
was  fully  established.  His  original  impressions  being  thus 
confirmed,  he  proceeded,  late  in  the  year  1803,  to  con- 
struct a  working  model  of  his  intended  boat,  which  model 
was  deposited  with  a  commission  of  French  savans.  He 
at  the  same  time  began  building  a  vessel  sixty-six  feet 
in  length  and  eight  feet  in  width.  To  this  an  engine 
was  adapted  \  and  the  experiment  made  with  it  was  so 
satisfactory,  as  to  leave  little  doubt  of  final  success. 

Measures  were  therefore  immediately  taken,  prepara- 
tory to  constructing  a  steamboat  on  a  larger  scale  in  the 
United  States.  For  this  purpose,  as  the  workshops  of 
neither  France  nor  America  could  at  that  time  furnish  an 
engine  of  good  quality,  it  became  necessary  to  resort  to 
England  for  that  purpose.  Fulton  had  already  experi- 
enced the  difficulty  of  being  compelled  to  employ  artists 
unacquainted  with  the  subject.  It  is,  indeed,  more  than 
probable,  that,  had  he  not,  during  his  residence  in  Bir- 
mingham, made  himself  familiar,  not  only  with  the  general 
features,  but  with  the  most  minute  details  of  the  engine  of 
Watt,  the  experiment  on  the  Seine  could  not  have  been 

1  Symington  was  an  engineer  who  had  been  carrying  out  some  experi- 
ments of  Miller  of  Dalswinton  in  regard  to  the  practicability  of  steam 
navigation. 


CHANCELLOR  LIVINGSTON.  igl 

made.  In  this  experiment,  and  in  the  previous  investiga- 
tions, it  became  obvious  that  the  engine  of  Watt  required 
important  modifications  in  order  to  adapt  it  to  navigation. 
These  modifications  had  been  planned  by  Fulton ;  but  it 
now  became  important,  that  they  should  be  more  fully 
tested.  An  engine  was  therefore  ordered  from  Watt  and 
Boulton,  without  any  specification  of  the  object  to  which  it 
was  to  be  applied ;  and  its  form  was  directed  to  be  varied 
from  their  usual  models,  in  conformity  to  sketches  furnished 
by  Fulton. 

The  order  for  an  engine  intended  to  propel  a  vessel  of 
large  size,  was  transmitted  to  Watt  and  Boulton  in  1803. 
At  about  the  same  time,  Chancellor  Livingston,  having 
full  confidence  in  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  caused  an 
application  to  be  made  to  the  legislature  of  New  York  for 
an  exclusive  privilege  of  navigating  the  waters  of  that 
State  by  steam,  that  which  was  granted  on  a  former  occa- 
sion having  expired. 

This  privilege  was  granted  with  little  opposition.  In- 
deed, those  who  might  have  been  inclined  to  object,  saw 
so  much  of  the  impracticable  and  even  of  the  ridiculous  in 
the  project,  that  they  conceived  the  application  unworthy 
of  serious  debate.  The  condition  attached  to  the  grant 
was,  that  a  vessel  should  be  propelled  by  steam  at  the  rate 
of  four  miles  an  hour,  within  a  prescribed  space  of  time. 
This  reliance  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States  proved 
a  fruitful  source  of  vexation  to  Livingston  and  Fulton,  and 
imbittered  the  close  of  the  life  of  the  latter,  and  reduced 
his  family  to  penury.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that,  had 
an  expectation  been  entertained,  that  the  grant  of  a  State 
was  ineffectual,  and  that  the  jurisdiction  was  vested  in  the 
general  government,  a  similar  grant  might  have  been  ob- 
tained from  Congress.  The  influence  of  Livingston  with 


1 82  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

the  administration  was  deservedly  high,  and  that  adminis- 
tration was  supported  by  a  powerful  majority ;  nor  would  it 
have  been  consistent  with  the  principles  of  the  opposition 
to  vote  against  any  act  of  liberality  to  the  introducer  of 
a  valuable  application  of  science.  Livingston,  however, 
confiding  in  his  skill  as  a  lawyer,  preferred  the  application 
to  the  State,  and  was  thus,  by  his  own  act,  restricted  to  a 
limited  field. 

Before  the  engine  ordered  from  Watt  and  Boulton  was 
completed,  Fulton  visited  England,  and  thus  had  an 
opportunity  of  visiting  Birmingham,  and  directing,  in 
person,  its  construction.  It  could  only  have  been  at 
this  time,  if  ever,  that  he  saw  the  boat  of  Symington ; 1 
but  a' view  of  it  could  have  produced  no  effect  upon  his 
own  plans,  which  had  been  matured  in  France,  and  car- 
ried, so  far  as  the  engine  was  concerned,  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  admit  of  no  alteration. 

The  engine  was  at  last  completed,  and  reached  New 
York  in  1806.  Fulton,  who  returned  to  his  native  coun- 
try about  the  same  period,  immediately  undertook  the 
construction  of  a  boat  in  which  to  place  it.  In  ordering 
his  engine  and  in  planning  the  boat,  Fulton  exhibited 
plainly  how  far  his  scientific  researches  and  practical 
experiments  had  placed  him  before  all  his  competitors. 
He  had  evidently  ascertained,  what  each  successive  year's 
experience  proves  more  fully,  the  great  advantages  pos- 
sessed by  large  steamboats  over  those  of  smaller  size ; 
and  thus,  while  all  previous  attempts  had  been  made  in 
smaller  vessels,  he  alone  resolved  to  make  his  final  ex- 
periment in  one  of  great  dimensions.  That  a  vessel, 

1  Who  subsequently  made  charge  that  Fulton,  having  seen  his  steam- 
boat and  made  copious  notes  thereon,  had  thus  been  able  to  make  his  boat 
upon  the  Hudson. 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE.  183 

intended  to  be  propelled  by  steam,  ought  to  have  very 
different  proportions,  and  lines  of  a  character  wholly 
distinct  from  those  of  vessels  intended  to  be  navigated 
by  sails,  was  evident  to  him.  No  other  theory,  how- 
ever, of  the  resistance  of  fluids  was  admitted  at  the 
time  than  that  of  Bossut,  and  there  were  no  published 
experiments  except  those  of  the  British  Society  of  Arts. 
Judged  in  reference  to  these,  the  model  chosen  by  Ful- 
ton was  faultless,  although  it  will  not  stand  the  test  of 
an  examination  founded  upon  a  better  theory  and  more 
accurate  experiments. 

The  vessel  was  finished  and  fitted  with  her  machinery 
in  August,  1807.  An  experimental  excursion  was  forth- 
with made,  at  which  a  number  of  gentlemen  of  science 
and  intelligence  were  present.  Many  of  these  were  either 
sceptical  or  absolute  unbelievers.  But  a  few  minutes 
served  to  convert  the  whole  party,  and  satisfy  the  most 
obstinate  doubters,  that  the  long-desired  object  was  at 
last  accomplished.  Only  a  few  weeks  before,  the  cost 
of  constructing  and  finishing  the  vessel  threatening  to 
exceed  the  funds  with  which  he  had  been  provided  by 
Livingston,  Fulton  had  attempted  to  obtain  a  supply 
by  the  sale  of  one  third  of  the  exclusive  right  granted 
by  the  State  of  New  York.  No  person  was  found  pos- 
sessed of  the  faith  requisite  to  induce  him  to  embark  in 
the  project.  Those  who  had  rejected  this  opportunity 
of  investment,  were  now  the  witnesses  of  the  comple- 
tion of  the  scheme,  which  they' had  considered  as  an 
inadequate  security  for  the  desired  funds. 

Within  a  few  days  from  the  time  of  the  first  experiment 
with  the  steamboat,  a  voyage  was  undertaken  in  it  to 
Albany.  This  city,  situated  at  the  natural  head  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Hudson,  is  distant,  by  the  line  of  the 


1 84  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

channel  of  the  river,  rather  less  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  New  York.  By  the  old  post-road,  the 
distance  is  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  at  which  that  by 
water  is  usually  estimated.  Although  the  greater  part  of 
the  channel  of  the  Hudson  is  both  deep  and  wide,  yet 
for  about  fourteen  miles  below  Albany  this  character  is 
not  preserved,  and  the  stream,  confined  within  compar- 
atively small  limits,  is  obstructed  by  bars  of  sand  or 
spreads  itself  over  shallows.  In  a  few  remarkable  in- 
stances, the  sloops,  which  then  exclusively  navigated  the 
Hudson,  had  effected  a  passage  in  about  sixteen  hours ; 
but  a  whole  week  was  not  unfrequently  employed  in  the 
voyage,  and  the  average  time  of  passage  was  not  less  than 
four  entire  days.  In  Fulton's  first  attempt  to  navigate  this 
stream,  the  passage  to  Albany  was  performed  in  thirty-two 
hours,  and  the  return  in  thirty. 

Up  to  this  time,  although  the  exclusive  grant  had  been 
sought  and  obtained  from  the  State  of  New  York,  it  does 
not  appear  that  either  he  or  his  associate  had  been  fully 
aware  of  the  vast  opening  which  the  navigation  of  the 
Hudson  presented  for  the  use  of  steam.  They  looked  to 
the  rapid  Mississippi  and  its  branches,  as  the  place  where 
their  triumph  was  to  be  achieved ;  and  the  original  boat, 
modelled  for  shallow  waters,  was  announced  as  intended 
for  the  navigation  of  that  river.  But  even  in  the  very 
first  attempt,  numbers,  called  by  business  or  pleasure  to 
the  northern  or  western  parts  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
crowded  into  the  yet  untried  vessel ;  and  when  the  success 
of  the  attempt  was  beyond  question,  no  little  anxiety  was 
manifested,  that  the  steamboat  should  be  established  as  a 
regular  packet  between  New  York  and  Albany. 

With  these  indications  of  public  feeling  Fulton  imme- 
diately complied,  and  regular  voyages  were  made  at  stated 


THE  "CLERMONT."  185 

times  until  the  end  of  the  season.  These  voyages  were 
not,  however,  unattended  with  inconvenience.  The  boat, 
designed  for  a  mere  experiment,  was  incommodious  ;  and 
many  of  the  minor  arrangements  by  which  facility  of 
working  and  safety  from  accident  to  the  machinery  were 
to  be  insured,  were  yet  wanting.  Fulton  continued  a 
close  and  attentive  observer  of  the  performance  of  the 
vessel ;  every  difficulty,  as  it  manifested  itself,  was  met  and 
removed  by  the  most  masterly  as  well  as  simple  contriv- 
ances. Some  of  these  were  at  once  adopted,  while  others 
remained  to  be  applied  while  the  boat  should  be  laid  up 
for  the  winter.  He  thus  gradually  formed  in  his  mind  the 
idea  of  a  complete  and  perfect  vessel ;  and  in  his  plan, 
no  one  part  which  has  since  been  found  to  be  essential 
to  the  ease  of  manoeuvre  or  security,  was  omitted.  But 
the  eyes  of  the  whole  community  were  now  fixed  upon 
the  steamboat ;  and  as  all  those  of  competent  mechanical 
knowledge  were,  like  Fulton  himself,  alive  to  the  defects 
of  the  original  vessel,  his  right  to  priority  of  invention  of 
various  important  accessories  has  been  disputed. 

The  winter  of  1807-8  was  occupied  in  remodelling 
and  rebuilding  the  vessel,  to  which  the  name  "Clermont" 
was  now  given.  The  guards  and  housings  for  the  wheels, 
which  had  been  but  temporary  structures,  applied  as  their 
value  was  pointed  out  by  experience,  became  solid  and 
essential  parts  of  the  boat.  For  a  rudder  of  the  ordinary 
form,  one  of  surface  much  more  extended  in  its  horizontal 
dimensions  was  substituted.  This,  instead  of  being  moved 
by  a  tiller,  was  acted  upon  by  ropes  applied  to  its  extrem- 
ity; and  these  ropes  were  adapted  to  a  steering-wheel, 
which  was  raised  aloft  towards  the  bow  of  the  vessel. 

It  had  been  shown  by  the  numbers  who  were  trans- 
ported during  the  first  summer,  that  at  the  same  price  for 


1 86  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

passage,  many  were  willing  to  undergo  all  the  inconven- 
iences of  the  original  rude  accommodations,  in  preference 
to  encountering  the  delays  and  uncertainty  to  which  the 
passage  in  sloops  was  exposed.  Fulton  did  not,  however, 
take  advantage  of  his  monopoly,  but  with  the  most  liberal 
spirit,  provided  such  accommodations  for  passengers,  as 
in  convenience  and  even  splendor,  had  not  before  been 
approached  in  vessels  intended  for  the  transportation  of 
travellers.  This  was,  on  his  part,  an  exercise  of  almost 
improvident  liberality.  By  his  contract  with  Chancellor 
Livingston,  the  latter  undertook  to  defray  the  whole  cost 
of  the  engine  and  vessel,  until  the  experiment  should 
result  in  success  ;  but  from  that  hour  each  was  to  furnish 
an  equal  share  of  all  investments.  Fulton  had  no  pat- 
rimonial fortune,  and  what  little  he  had  saved  from  the 
product  of  his  ingenuity  was  now  exhausted.  But  the 
success  of  the  experiment  had  inspired  the  banks  and 
capitalists  with  confidence,  and  he  now  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining,  in  the  way  of  loan,  all  that  was  needed. 
Still,  however,  a  debt  was  thus  contracted  which  the  con- 
tinued demands  made  upon  him  for  new  investments 
never  permitted  him  to  discharge.  The  "Clermont," 
thus  converted  into  a  floating  palace,  gay  with  orna- 
mental painting,  gilding,  and  polished  woods,  began  her 
course  of  passages  for  the  second  year  in  the  month  of 
April. 

The  first  voyage  of  this  year  was  of  the  most  discour- 
aging character.  Chancellor  Livingston,  who  had,  by  his 
own  experiments,  approached  as  near  to  success  as  any 
other  person  who,  before  Fulton,  had  endeavored  to 
navigate  by  steam,  and  who  had  furnished  all  the  capital 
necessary  for  the  experiment,  had  plans  and  projects  of 
his  own.  These  he  urged  into  execution  in  spite  of  the 


PUNCTUALITY.  l8/ 

opposition  of  Fulton.  The  boiler  furnished  by  Watt  and 
Boulton  was  not  adapted  to  the  object.  Copied  from 
those  used  on  the  land,  it  required  that  its  fireplace  and 
flues  should  be  constructed  of  masonry.  These  added  so 
much  weight  to  the  apparatus,  that  the  rebuilt  boat  would 
hardly  have  floated  had  they  been  retained.  In  order  to 
replace  this  boiler,  Livingston  had  planned  a  compound 
structure  of  wood  and  copper,  which  he  insisted  should 
be  tried. 

It  is  only  necessary  for  us  to  say,  that  this  boiler  proved 
a  complete  failure.  Steam  began  to  issue  from  its  joints  a 
few  hours  after  the  "  Clermont "  left  New  York.  It  then 
became  impossible  to  keep  up  a  proper  degree  of  tension, 
and  the  passage  was  thus  prolonged  to  forty-eight  hours. 
These  defects  increased  after  leaving  Albany  on  the  return, 
and  the  boiler  finally  gave  way  altogether  within  a  few 
miles  of  New  York.  The  time  of  the  downward  passage 
was  thus  extended  to  fifty-six  hours.  Fulton  was,  how- 
ever, thus  relieved  from  all  further  interference ;  this  fruit- 
less experiment  was  decisive  as  to  his  superiority  over  his 
colleague  in  mechanical  skill.  He  therefore  immediately 
planned  and  directed  the  execution  of  a  new  boiler,  which 
answered  the  purpose  perfectly ;  and  although  there  are 
many  reasons  why  boilers  of  a  totally  different  form  and 
of  subsequent  invention  should  be  preferred,  it  is,  for  its 
many  good  properties,  extensively  used,  with  little  alter- 
ation, up  to  the  present  day.  But  a  few  weeks  sufficed 
to  build  and  set  this  boiler,  and  in  the  month  of  June 
the  regular  passages  of  the  "  Glermont  "  were  renewed. 

In  observing  the  hour  appointed  for  departure,  both 
from  New  York  and  Albany,  Fulton  determined  to  insist 
upon  the  utmost  regularity.  It  required  no  little  perse- 
verance and  resolution  to  carry  this  system  of  punctuality 


1 88  STOXIES  OF  INVENTION. 

into  effect.  Persons  accustomed  to  be  waited  for  by 
packet-boats  and  stages,  assented  with  great  reluctance  to 
what  they  conceived  to  be  a  useless  adherence  to  precision 
of  time.  The  benefits  of  this  punctuality  were  speedily 
perceptible  ;  the  whole  system  of  internal  communication 
of  the  State  of  New  York  was  soon  regulated  by  the  hours 
of  arrival  and  departure  of  Fulton's  steamboats ;  and  the 
same  system  of  precision  was  copied  in  all  other  steam- 
boat lines.  The  certainty  of  conveyance  at  stated  times 
being  thus  secured,  the  number  of  travellers  was  instantly 
augmented ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  second  summer, 
the  boat  became  far  too  small  for  the  passengers,  who 
crowded  to  avail  themselves  of  this  novel,  punctual,  and 
unprecedentedly  rapid  method  of  transport. 

Such  success,  however,  was  not  without  its  alloy.  The 
citizens  of  Albany  and  the  river  towns  saw,  as  they  thought, 
in  the  steamboat,  the  means  of  enticing  their  customers 
from  their  ancient  marts  to  the  more  extensive  market 
of  the  chief  city ;  the  skippers  of  the  river  mourned  the 
inevitable  loss  of  a  valuable  part  of  their  business ;  and 
innumerable  projectors  beheld  with  envy  the  successful 
enterprise  of  Fulton. 

Among  the  latter  class  was  one  who,  misled  by  false 
notions  of  mechanical  principles,  fancied  that  in  the  mere 
oscillations  of  a  pendulum  lay  a  power  sufficient  for  any 
purpose  whatever.  Availing  himself  of  a  well-constructed 
model,  he  exhibited  to  the  inhabitants  of  Albany  a  pendu- 
lum which  continued  its  motions  for  a  considerable  time, 
without  requiring  any  new  impulse,  and  at  the  same  time 
propelled  a  pair  of  wheels.  These  wheels,  however,  did 
not  work  in  water.  Those  persons  who  felt  themselves 
aggrieved  by  the  introduction  of  steamboats,  quickly  em- 
braced this  project,  prompted  by  an  enmity  to  Fulton, 


LEGAL   CONTESTS.  189 

and  determined,  if  they  could  not  defeat  his  object,  at 
least  to  share  in  the  profits  of  its  success. 

It  soon  appeared,  from  preliminary  experiments,  made 
in  a  sloop  purchased  for  the  purpose,  that  a  steam-engine 
would  be  required  to  give  motion  to  the  pendulum  ;  and 
it  was  observed  that  the  water-wheels,  when  in  connection 
with  the  pendulum,  had  a  very  irregular  motion.  A  fly- 
wheel was  therefore  added,  and  the  pendulum  was  now 
found  to  be  a  useless  incumbrance.  Enlightened  by 
these  experiments,  the  association  proceeded  to  build  two 
boats ;  and  these  were  exact  copies,  not  only  of  the  hull 
and  all  the  accessories  of  the  "  Clermont,"  but  the  engine 
turned  out  to  be  identical  in  form  and  structure  with 
one  which  Fulton  was  at  the  very  time  engaged  in  fitting 
to  his  second  boat,  "  The  Car  of  Neptune." 

The  pretence  of  bringing  into  use  a  new  description 
of  prime  mover  was  of  course  necessarily  abandoned,  and 
the  owners  of  the  new  steamboats  determined  boldly  to 
test  the  constitutionality  of  the  exclusive  grant  to  Fulton. 
Fulton  and  Livingston,  in  consequence,  applied  to  the 
Court  of  Chancery  of  the  State  of  New  York  for  an  in- 
junction, which  was  refused.  On  an  appeal  to  the  Court 
of  Errors  this  decision  of  the  Chancellor  was  reversed ;  but 
the  whole  of  the  profits  which  might  have  been  derived 
from  the  business  of  the  year  were  prevented  from  accru- 
ing to  Livingston  and  Fulton,  who,  compelled  to  contend 
in  price  with  an  opposition  supported  by  popular  feeling 
in  Albany,  were  losers  rather  than  gainers  by  the  operations 
of  the  season. 

As  no  appeal  was  taken  from  this  last  decision,  the 
waters  of  the  State  of  New  York  remained  in  the  exclusive 
possession  of  Fulton  and  his  partner,  until  the  death  of 
the  former.  This  exclusive  possession  was  not,  however, 


190  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

attended  with  all  the  advantages  that  might  have  been 
anticipated.  The  immense  increase  of  travel  which  the 
facilities  of  communication  created,  rendered  it  imperative 
upon  the  holders  of  the  monopoly  to  provide  new  facilities 
by  the  construction  of  new  vessels.  The  cost  of  these 
could  not  be  defrayed  out  of  the  profits.  Hence  new 
and  heavy  debts  were  necessarily  contracted  by  Fulton, 
while  Livingston,  possessed  of  an  ample  fortune,  required 
no  pecuniary  aid  beyond  what  he  was  able  to  meet  from 
his  own  resources. 

The  most  formidable  opposition  which  was  made  to  the 
privileges  of  Fulton,  was  founded  upon  the  discoveries  of 
Fitch.  We  have  seen,  that  he  constructed  a  boat  which 
made  some  passages  between  Trenton  and  Philadelphia ; 
but  the  method  which  he  used,  was  that  of  paddles, 
which  are  far  inferior  to  the  paddle-wheel.  Of  the  infe- 
riority of  the  method  of  paddles,  had  any  doubt  remained, 
positive  evidence  was  afforded  in  the  progress  of  this  dis- 
pute ;  for  in  order  to  bring  the  question  to  the  test  of  a 
legal  decision,  a  boat  propelled  by  them  was  brought  into 
the  waters  of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  result  of  the 
experiment  was  so  decisive,  that  when  the  parties  engaged 
in  the  enterprise  had  succeeded  in  their  designs,  they 
made  no  attempt  to  propel  their  boats  by  any  other 
method  than  that  of  wheels. 

Fulton,  assailed  in  his  exclusive  privileges  derived  from 
State  grants,  took,  for  his  further  protection,  a  patent  from 
the  general  government.  This  is  dated  in  1809,  and  was 
followed  by  another,  for  improvements  upon  it,  in  1811. 
It  now  appeared,  that  the  very  circumstance  in  which  the 
greatest  merit  of  his  method  consists,  was  to  be  the  obsta- 
cle to  his  maintaining  an  exclusive  privilege.  Discarding 
all  complexity,  he  had  limited  himself  to  the  simple  means 


IMPR  O  VEMENTS.  1 9 1 

of  adapting  paddle-wheels  to  the  crank  of  Watt's  engine  ; 
and,  under  the  patent  laws,  it  seems  hardly  possible  that 
such  a  simple  yet  effectual  method  could  be  guarded  by 
a  specification.  As  has  been  the  case  with  many  other 
important  discoveries,  the  most  ignorant  conceived  that 
they  might  themselves  have  discovered  it ;  and  those  un- 
acquainted with  the  history  of  the  attempts  at  navigation 
by  steam,  were  compelled  to  wonder  that  it  had  been  left 
for  Fulton  to  bring  it  into  successful  operation. 

Before  the  death  of  Fulton,  the  steamboats  on  the 
Hudson  River  were  increased  in  number  to  five.  A  sixth 
was  built  under  his  direction  for  the  navigation  of  the 
Sound;  and,  this  water  being  rendered  unsafe  by  the 
presence  of  an  enemy's l  squadron,  the  boat  plied  for  a 
time  upon  the  Hudson.  In  the  construction  of  this  boat 
he  had,  in  his  own  opinion,  exhausted  the  power  of  steam 
in  navigation,  having  given  it  a  speed  of  nine  miles  an 
hour;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  which  manifests  his 
acquaintance  with  theory  and  skill  in  calculation,  that  he 
in  all  cases  predicted  with  almost  absolute  accuracy,  the 
velocity  of  the  vessels  he  caused  to  be  constructed.  The 
engineers  of  Great  Britain  came,  long  after,  to  a  similar 
conclusion  in  respect  to  the  maximum  of  speed. 

It  is  now,  however,  well  known,  that,  with  a  proper  con- 
struction of  prows,  the  resistance  to  vessels  moving  at 
higher  velocities  than  nine  miles  an  hour,  increases  in 
a  much  less  ratio  than  had  been  inferred  from  experi- 
ments made  upon  wedge-shaped  bodies ;  and  that  the 
velocity  of  the  pistons  of  steam-engines  may  be  conve- 
niently increased  beyond  the  limit  fixed  by  the  practice 
of  Watt. 

For  these  important  discoveries  the  world  is  indebted 

1  This  was  in  the  course  of  the  War  of  1812. 


I Q2  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

principally  to  Robert  L.  Stevens.  That  Fulton  must  have 
reached  them  in  the  course  of  his  own  practice  can  hardly 
be  doubted,  had  his  valuable  life  been  spared  to  watch 
the  performance  of  the  vessels  he  was  engaged  in  build- 
ing at  the  time  of  his  premature  death.1  These  were,  a 
large  boat  intended  for  the  navigation  of  the  Hudson, 
to  which  the  name  of  his  partner,  Chancellor  Livingston, 
was  given,  and  one  planned  for  the  navigation  of  the 
ocean.  The  latter  was  constructed  with  the  intention  of 
making  a  passage  to  St.  Petersburg ;  but  this  scheme  was 
interrupted  by  his  death,  which  took  place  at  the  moment 
he  was  about  to  add  to  his  glory,  as  the  first  constructor 
of  a  successful  steamboat,  that  of  being  the  first  navigator 
of  the  ocean  by  this  new  and  mighty  agent. 

l    Fulton  died  Feb.  24,  1815  ;  he  was  born  in  1765. 


X. 


GEORGE  STEPHENSON   AND  THE  LOCO- 
MOTIVE. 

"  T  X  7HAT  I  say  is  this/'  said  Nahum,  "that  all  your 
*  *  Vesuvius  dividends,  and  all  your  pickers  and 
slobbers,  and  shirtings  at  four  cents,  and  all  the  rest  of 
your  great  cotton  victory,  depend  on  railroads.  If  your 
father  could  not  go  to  Lewiston  and  see  his  foreman  and 
people,  and  come  back  before  you  can  say  Jack  Robin- 
son, there  would  be  no  mills  at  Lewiston  such  as  there 
are.  There  might  be  a  poor  little  sawmill  making  shingles, 
as  you  free-traders  want."  This  with  scorn  at  Fergus, 
perhaps,  or  some  one  else  suspected  of  views  unfavorable 
to  protection. 

Then  Nahum  shook  hands  with  Uncle  Fritz,  and  apol- 
ogized for  his  zeal,  adding :  "  I  am  telling  the  boys  why 
I  want  to  go  to  Altoona,  and  to  become  a  railroad  man.  I 
say  that  the  new  plant  in  India  might  knock  cotton  higher 
than  a  kite,  and  that  people  might  learn  to  live  without 
novels  or  magazines,  but  that  they  must  have  transpor- 
tation all  the  same.  And  I  am  going  into  the  railroad 
business.  I  am  going  to  hew  down  the  mountains  and 
fill  up  the  valleys."  The  boy  was  fairly  eloquent  in  his 
enthusiasm. 

"  It  is  in  your  blood,  my  brave  fellow,"  said  Uncle 
Fritz.     "  People  thought  your  grandfather  was  crazy  when 
13 


IQ4  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

he  said  it,  sixty  years  ago.  But  it  proved  he  was  the  seer 
and  the  prophet,  and  they  were  the  fools." 

"  And  who  invented  railroads  ?  "  asked  Blanche. 

"  As  to  that,  the  man  invented  a  railroad  who  first  put 
two  boards  down  over  two  ruts  to  make  a  cart  run  easier. 
Almost  as  soon  as  there  were  mines,  there  must  have  been 
some  sort  of  rail  for  the  use  of  the  wagons  which  brought 
out  the  ore.  These  rails  became  so  useful  that  they  were 
continued  from  the  mine  to  the  high-road,  whatever  it 
was.  But  it  was  not  till  the  first  quarter  of  this  century, 
that  rails  were  laid  for  general  use.  The  earliest  railroad 
in  the  United  States  was  laid  at  the  quarries  in  Quincy, 
in  Massachusetts,  in  1825." 

Uncle  Fritz  was  so  well  pleased  at  their  eagerness  that 
he  brought  out  for  them  some  of  the  old  books,  and  some 
of  the  new.  In  especial  he  bade  them  all  read  Smiles 's 
"  Life  of  Stephenson  "  before  they  came  to  him  again. 
For  to  George  Stephenson,  as  they  soon  learned,  more 
than  to  any  one  man,  the  world  owes  the  step  forward 
which  it  made  when  locomotives  were  generally  used  on 
railroads.  Since  that  time  the  improvements  in  both  have 
gone  on  together. 

Before  they  met  again,  at  Uncle  Fritz's  suggestion, 
Fergus  and  Hester  prepared  this  sketch  of  the  details 
of  Stephenson's  earlier  invention,  purposely  that  Uncle 
Fritz  might  use  it  when  these  papers  should  be  printed 
together. 

GEORGE   STEPHENSON. 

An  efficient  and  economical  working  locomotive  engine 
still  remained  to  be  invented,  and  to  accomplish  this  ob- 
ject Stephenson  now  applied  himself.  Profiting  by  what 
his  predecessors  had  done,  —  warned  by  their  failures  and 


LORD  RAVENSWORTH.  195 

encouraged  by  their  partial  successes,  —  he  began  his 
labors.  There  was  still  wanting  the  man  who  should  ac- 
complish for  the  locomotive  what  James  Watt  had  done 
for  the  steam-engine,  and  combine  in  a  complete  form  the 
best  points  in  the  separate  plans  of  others,  embodying 
with  them  such  original  inventions  and  adaptations  of  his 
own,  as  to  entitle  him  to  the  merit  of  inventing  the  work- 
ing locomotive,  as  James  Watt  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
inventor  of  the  working  condensing-engine. .  This  was  the 
great  work  upon  which  George  Stephenson  now  entered, 
though  probably  without  any  adequate  idea  of  the  ulti- 
mate importance  of  his  work  to  society  and  civilization. 

He  proceeded  to  bring  the  subject  of  constructing  a 
"Travelling  Engine,"  as  he  denominated  the  locomotive, 
under  the  notice  of  the  lessees  of  the  Killingworth  Col- 
liery,1 in  the  year  1813.  Lord  Ravensworth,  the  principal 
partner,  had  already  formed  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  the 
new  colliery  engine-wright  from  the  improvements  which 
he  had  effected  in  the  colliery  engines,  both  above  and 
below  ground;  and  after  considering  the  matter,  and 
hearing  Stephenson's  explanations,  he  authorized  him  to 
proceed  with  the  construction  of  a  locomotive,  though 
his  lordship  was  by  some  called  a  fool  for  advancing  money 
for  such  a  purpose.  "  The  first  locomotive  that  I  made," 
said  Stephenson,  many  years  after,  when  speaking  of  his 
early  career  at  a  public  meeting  in  Newcastle,  "  was  at  Kil- 

1  Killingworth  is  a  town  some  seven  or  eight  miles  north  of  Newcastle, 
in  Northumberland.  George  Stephenson  was  at  this  time  the  engine-wright 
of  the  colliery.  It  may  be  said  here  that  the  principal  use  for  which  the 
early  locomotive  engines  and  railroads  were  designed  was  to  convey  coal 
from  the  pit  to  a  market.  It  was  not  till  the  success  of  the  mining  and 
quarrying  railways  led  to  the  building  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Road,  between  two  great  cities,  that  the  value  of  the  railroad  for  the  transfer 
of  passengers  was  recognized. 


196  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

lingworth  Colliery,  and  with  Lord  Ravensworth's  money. 
Yes,  Lord  Ravensworth  and  partners  were  the  first  to  in- 
trust me,  thirty-two  years  since,  with  money  to  make  a 
locomotive  engine.  I  said  to  my  friends,  there  was  no 
limit  to  the  speed  of  such  an  engine,  if  the  works  could 
be  made  to  stand." 

Our  engine-wright  had,  however,  many  obstacles  to 
encounter  before  he  could  get  fairly  to  work  upon  the 
erection  of  his  locomotive.  His  chief  difficulty  was  in 
finding  workmen  sufficiently  skilled  in  mechanics  and  in 
the  use  of  tools  to  follow  his  instructions,  and  embody  his 
designs  in  a  practical  shape.  The  tools  then  in  use  about 
the  colliery  were  rude  and  clumsy,  and  there  were  no  such 
facilities,  as  now  exist,  for  turning  out  machinery  of  any 
entirely  new  character.  Stephenson  was  under  the  neces- 
sity of  working  with  such  men  and  tools  as  were  at  his 
command,  and  he  had  in  a  great  measure  to  train  and 
instruct  the  workmen  himself.  The  new  engine  was  built 
in  the  workshops  at  the  West  Morr,  the  leading  mechanic 
being  John  Thirlwall,  the  colliery  blacksmith,  —  an  excel- 
lent mechanic  in  his  way,  though  quite  new  to  the  work 
now  intrusted  to  him. 

In  this  first  locomotive,  constructed  at  Killingworth, 
Stephenson  to  some  extent  followed  the  plan  of  Blenkin- 
sop's  engine.  The  wrought-iron  boiler  was  cylindrical, 
eight  feet  in  length  and  thirty-four  inches  in  diameter, 
with  an  internal  flue-tube  twenty  inches  wide  passing 
through  it.  The  engine  had  two  vertical  cylinders,  of 
eight  inches  diameter  and  two  feet  stroke,  let  into  the 
boiler,  which  worked  the  propelling  gear  with  cross-heads 
and  connecting-rods.  The  power  of  the  two  cylinders 
was  combined  by  means  of  spur-wheels,  which  commu- 
nicated the  motive  power  to  the  wheels  supporting  the 


THE  FIRST  TRIAL.  197 

engine  on  the  rail.  The  engine  thus  worked  upon  what  is 
termed  the  second  motion.  The  chimney  was  of  wrought- 
iron,  round  which  was  a  chamber  extending  back  to  the 
feed-pumps,  for  the  purpose  of  heating  the  water  previous 
to  its  injection  into  the  boiler.  The  engine  had  no  springs, 
and  was  mounted  on  a  wooden  frame  supported  on  four 
wheels.  In  order  to  neutralize  as  much  as  possible  the 
jolts  and  shocks  which  such  an  engine  would  necessa- 
rily encounter,  from  the  obstacles  and  inequalities  of  the 
then  very  imperfect  plate-way,  the  water-barrel,  which 
served  for  a  tender,  was  fixed  to  the  end  of  a  lever  and 
weighted ;  the  other  end  of  the  lever  being  connected 
with  the  frame  of  the  locomotive  carriage.  By  this  means 
the  weight  of  the  two  was  more  equally  distributed,  though 
the  contrivance  did  not  by  any  means  compensate  for  the 
total  absence  of  springs. 

The  wheels  of  the  locomotive  were  all  smooth,  Ste- 
phenson  having  satisfied  himself  by  experiment  that  the 
adhesion  between  the  wheels  of  a  loaded  engine  and  the 
rail  would  be  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  traction.1 

The  engine  was,  after  much  labor  and  anxiety,  and  fre- 
quent alterations  of  parts,  at  length  brought  to  completion, 
having  been  about  ten  months  in  hand.  It  was  placed 
upon  the  Killingworth  Railway  on  the  25th  of  July,  1814, 
and  its  powers  were  tried  on  the  same  day.  On  an  as- 
cending gradient  of  i  in  450,  the  engine  succeeded  in 
drawing  after  it  eight  loaded  carriages,  of  thirty  tons  weight, 
at  about  four  miles  an  hour ;  and  for  some  time  after  it 
continued  regularly  at  work. 

Although  a  considerable  advance  upon  previous  loco- 

1  It  had  been  generally  the  opinion  that  cog-wheels  must  be  used  which 
should  fit  into  cogs  in  the  rail.  Otherwise  it  was  imagined  the  wheels 
would  revolve  without  proceeding. 


198  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

motives,  "  Blucher  "  (as  the  engine  was  popularly  called) 
was  nevertheless  a  somewhat  cumbrous  and  clumsy  ma- 
chine. The  parts  were  huddled  together.  The  boiler 
constituted  the  principal  feature ;  and,  being  the  founda- 
tion of  the  other  parts,  it  was  made  to  do  duty  not  only  as 
a  generator  of  steam,  but  also  as  a  basis  for  the  fixings  of 
the  machinery  and  for  the  bearings  of  the  wheels  and 
axles.  The  want  of  springs  was  seriously  felt ;  and  the 
progress  of  the  engine  was  a  succession  of  jolts,  causing 
considerable  derangement  to  the  working.  The  mode  of 
communicating  the  motive  power  to  the  wheels  by  means 
of  the  spur-gear  also  caused  frequent  jerks,  each  cylinder 
alternately  propelling  or  becoming  propelled  by  the  other, 
as  the  pressure  of  the  one  upon  the  wheels  became  greater 
or  less  than  the  pressure  of  the  other;  and  when  the 
teeth  of  the  cog-wheels  became  at  all  worn,  a  rattling 
noise  was  produced  during  the  travelling  of  the  engine. 

As  the  principal  test  of  the  success  of  the  locomotive 
was  its  economy  as  compared  with  horse-power,  careful 
calculations  were  made  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  this 
important  point.  The  result  was,  that  it  was  found  the 
working  of  the  engine  was  at  first  barely  economical ;  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  the  steam-power  and  the  horse- 
power were  ascertained  to  be  as  nearly  as  possible  upon  a 
par  in  point  of  cost. 

We  give  the  remainder  of  the  history  of  George  Ste- 
phenson's  efforts  to  produce  an  economical  working  loco- 
motive in  the  words  of  his  son  Robert,  as  communicated 
to  Mr.  Smiles  in  1856,  for  the  purposes  of  his  father's 
"Life." 

"  A  few  months  of  experience  and  careful  observation 
upon  the  operation  of  this  (his  first)  engine  convinced 
my  father  that  the  complication  arising  out  of  the  action 


THE  SECOND  ENGINE.  199 

of  the  two  cylinders  being  combined  by  spur-wheels  would 
prevent  their  coming  into  practical  application.  He  then 
directed  his  attention  to  an  entire  change  in  the  con- 
struction and  mechanical  arrangements,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  took  out  a  patent,  dated  Feb.  28,  1815,  for  an 
engine  which  combined  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  essen- 
tial requisites  of  an  economical  locomotive,  —  that  is  to 
say,  few  parts,  simplicity  in  their  action,  and  great  simpli- 
city in  the  mode  by  which  power  was  communicated  to 
the  wheels  supporting  the  engine. 

"  This  second  engine  consisted,  as  before,  of  two  vertical 
cylinders;  which  communicated  directly  with  each  pair  of 
the  four  wheels  that  supported  the  engine  by  a  cross-head 
and  a  pair  of  connecting-rods.  But  in  attempting  to 
establish  a  direct  communication  between  the  cylinders 
and  the  wheels  that  rolled  upon  the  rails,  considerable 
difficulties  presented  themselves.  The  ordinary  joints 
could  not  be  employed  to  unite  the  engine,  which  was  a 
rigid  mass,  with  the  wheels  rolling  upon  the  irregular  sur- 
face of  the  rails ;  for  it  was  evident  that  the  two  rails  of 
the  line  of  railway  could  not  always  be  maintained  at  the 
same  level  with  respect  to  each  other, — that  one  wheel  at 
the  end  of  the  axle  might  be  depressed  into  a  part  of  the 
line  which  had  subsided,  while  the  other  would  be  elevated. 
In  such  a  position  of  the  axle  and  wheels  it  was  clear  that 
a  rigid  communication  between  the  cross-head  and  the 
wheels  was  impracticable.  Hence  it  became  necessary 
to  form  a  joint  at  the  top  of  the  piston-rod  where  it  united 
with  the  cross-head,  so  as  to  permit  the  crossrhead  always 
to  preserve  complete  parallelism  with  the  axle  of  the 
wheels  with  which  it  was  in  communication. 

"  In  order  to  obtain  the  flexibility  combined  with  di- 
rect action,  which  was  essential  fqr  insuring  power  and 


2OO  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

avoiding  needless  friction  and  jars  from  irregularities  in 
the  rail,  my  father  employed  the  <  ball  and  socket  joint ' 
for  effecting  a  union  between  the  ends  of  the  cross-heads, 
where  they  were  united  with  the  crank-pins  attached  to 
each  driving-wheel.  By  this  arrangement  the  parallelism 
between  the  cross-head  and  the  axle  was  at  all  times  main- 
tained, it  being  permitted  to  take  place  without  producing 
jar  or  friction  upon  any  part  of  the  machine. 

"  The  next  important  point  was  to  combine  each  pair 
of  wheels  by  some  simple  mechanism,  instead  of  the  cog- 
wheels which  had  formerly  been  used.  My  father  began 
by  inserting  each  axle  into  two  cranks,  at  right  angles  to 
each  other,  with  rods  communicating  horizontally  between 
them.  An  engine  was  made  upon  this  plan,  and  answered 
extremely  well.  But  at  that  period  (1815)  the  mechani- 
cal skill  of  the  country  was  not  equal  to  the  task  of  forg- 
ing cranked  axles  of  the  soundness  and  strength  necessary 
to  stand  the  jars  incident  to  locomotive  work;  so  my 
father  was  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  a  substitute  which, 
though  less  simple  and  less  efficient,  was  within  the  me- 
chanical capabilities  of  the  workmen  of  that  day,  either 
for  construction  or  repair.  He  adopted  a  chain,  which 
rolled  over  indented  wheels  placed  on  the  centre  of  each 
axle,  and  so  arranged  that  the  two  pairs  of  wheels  were 
effectually  coupled  and  made  to  keep  pace  with  each 
other.  But  these  chains  after  a  few  years'  use  became 
stretched,  and  then  the  engines  were  liable  to  irregular- 
ity in  their  working,  especially  in  changing  from  working 
back  to  forward  again.  Nevertheless,  these  engines  con- 
tinued in  profitable  use  upon  the  Killingworth  Colliery 
Railway  for  some  years.  Eventually  the  chain  was  laid 
aside,  and  the  wheels  were  united  by  rods  on  the  outside 
instead  of  rods,  and  crank-axles  inside,  as  specified  in  the 


ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  LETTER.          2OI 

original  patent ;  and  this  expedient  completely  answered 
the  purpose  required,  without  involving  any  expensive  or 
difficult  workmanship. 

"Another  important  improvement  was  introduced  in 
this  engine.  The  eduction  steam  had  hitherto  been 
allowed  to  escape  direct  into  the  open  atmosphere ;  but 
my  father  having  observed  the  great  velocity  with  which 
the  smoke  issued  from  the  chimney  of  the  same  engine, 
thought  that  by  conveying  the  eduction  steam  into  the 
chimney,  and  there  allowing  it  to  escape  in  a  vertical  di- 
rection, its  velocity  would  be  imparted  to  the  smoke  from 
the  engine,  or  to  the  ascending  current  of  air  in  the  chim- 
ney. The  experiment  was  no  sooner  made  than  the 
power  of  the  engine  became  more  than  doubled ;  com- 
bustion was  stimulated,  as  it  were,  by  a  blast;  conse- 
quently, the  power  of  the  boiler  for  generating  steam  was 
increased,  and  in  the  same  proportion,  the  useful  duty  of 
the  engine  was  augmented. 

"Thus,  in  1815  my  father  had  succeeded  in  manufac- 
turing an  engine  which  included  the  following  important 
improvements  on  all  previous  attempts  in  the  same  di- 
rection :  simple  and  direct  communication  between  the 
cylinder  and  the  wheels  rolling  upon  the  rails ;  joint  ad- 
hesion of  all  the  wheels,  attained  by  the  use  of  horizon- 
tal connecting-rods;  and,  finally,  a  beautiful  method  of 
exciting  the  combustion  of  fuel  by  employing  the  waste 
steam  which  had  formerly  been  allowed  to  escape  use- 
lessly. It  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  say  that  this 
engine,  as  a  mechanical  contrivance,  contained  the  germ 
of  all  that  has  since  been  effected.  It  may  be  regarded, 
in  fact,  as  a  type  of  the  present  locomotive  engine. 

"In  describing  my  father's  application  of  the  waste 
steam  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  intensity  of  com- 


202  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

bustion  in  the  boiler,  and  thus  increasing  the  power  of  the 
engine  without  adding  to  its  weight,  and  while  claiming 
for  this  engine  the  merit  of  being  a  type  of  all  those  which 
have  been  successfully  devised  since  the  commencement 
of  the.  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway,  it  is  necessary 
to  observe  that  the  next  great  improvement  in  the  same 
direction,  the  '  multitubular  boiler,'  which  took  place 
some  years  later,  could  never  have  been  used  without 
the  help  of  that  simple  expedient,  the  steam-blast,  by 
which  power  only,  the  burning  of  coke  was  rendered 
possible. 

"  I  cannot  pass  over  this  last-named  invention  of  my 
father's  without  remarking  how  slightly,  as  an  original 
idea,  it  has  been  appreciated ;  and  yet  how  small  would 
be  the  comparative  value  of  the  locomotive  engine  of  the 
present  day,  without  the  application  of  that  important 
invention. 

"Engines  constructed  by  my  father  in  the  year  1818, 
upon  the  principles  just  described,  are  in  use  on  the  Kil- 
lingworth  Colliery  Railway  to  this  very  day  (1856),  con- 
veying, at  the  speed  of  perhaps  five  or  six  miles  an  hour, 
heavy  coal-trains,  probably  as  economically  as  any  of  the 
more  perfect  engines  now  in  use." 

The  invention  of  the  steam-blast  by  George  Stephenson 
in  1815  was  fraught  with  the  most  important  consequen- 
ces to  railway  locomotion ;  and  it  is  not  saying  too  much 
to  aver  that  the  success  of  the  locomotive  has  been  in  a 
great  measure  the  result  of  its  adoption.  Without  the 
steam-blast,  by  means  of  which  the  intensity  of  combus- 
tion is  maintained  at  its  highest  point,  producing  a  cor- 
respondingly rapid  evolution  of  steam,  high  rates  of  speed 
could  not  have  been  kept  up ;  the  advantages  of  the  mul- 
titubular boiler  (afterward  invented)  could  never  have 


THREE  ENGINES  ORDERED.  203 

been  fully  tested ;  and  locomotives  might  still  have  been 
dragging  themselves  unwieldily  along  at  a  rate  of  a  little 
more  than  five  or  six  miles  an  hour. 

As  the  period  drew  near  for  the  opening  of  the  line, 
the  question  of  the  tractive  power  to  be  employed  was 
anxiously  discussed.  At  the  Brusselton  decline,  fixed 
engines  must  necessarily  be  made  use  of;  but  with  re- 
spect to  the  mode  of  working  the  railway  generally,  it  was 
decided  that  horses  were  to  be  largely  employed,  and 
arrangements  were  made  for  their  purchase. 

Although  locomotives  had  been  regularly  employed  in 
hauling  coal-wagons  on  the  Middleton  Colliery  Railway, 
near  Leeds,  for  more  than  twelve  years,  and  on  the  Wylam 
and  Killingworth  Railways,  near  Newcastle,  for  more  than 
ten  years,  great  scepticism  still  prevailed  as  to  the  econ- 
omy of  employing  them  for  the  purpose  in  lieu  of  horses. 
In  this  case,  it  would  appear  that  seeing  was  not  believing. 
The  popular  scepticism  was  as  great  at  Newcastle,  where 
the  opportunities  for  accurate  observation  were  the  greatest, 
as  anywhere  else.  In  1824  the  scheme  of  a  canal  between 
that  town  and  Carlisle  again  came  up ;  and  although  a 
few  timid  voices  were  raised  on  behalf  of  a  railway,  the 
general  opinion  was  still  in  favor  of  a  canal.  The  exam- 
ple of  the  Hetton  Railway,  which  had  been  successfully 
worked  by  Stephenson's  locomotives  for  two  years  past, 
was  pointed  to  in  proof  of  the  practicability  of  a  locomo- 
tive line  between  the  two  places ;  but  the  voice  of  the 
press,  as  well  as  of  the  public,  was  decidedly  against  the 
"  new-fangled  roads." 

When  such  was  the  state  of  public  opinion  as  to  railway 
locomotion,  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  clear-sight- 
edness and  moral  courage  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
directors  in  ordering  three  of  Stephenson's  locomotive 


2O4  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

engines,  at  a  cost  of  several  thousand  pounds,  against  the 
opening  of  the  railway. 

These  were  constructed  after  Stephenson's  most  ma- 
tured designs,  and  embodied  all  the  improvements  which 
he  had  contrived  up  to  that  time.  No.  i  engine,  the 
"  Locomotion,"  which  was  first  delivered,  weighed  about 
eight  tons.  It  had  one  large  flue,  or  tube,  through 
the  boiler,  by  which  the  heated  air  passed  direct  from 
the  furnace  at  the  one  end,  lined  with  fire-bricks,  to  the 
chimney  at  the  other.  The  combustion  in  the  furnace 
was  quickened  by  the  adoption  of  the  steam-blast  in  the 
chimney.  The  heat  raised  was  sometimes  so  great,  and 
it  was  so  imperfectly  abstracted  by  the  surrounding  water, 
that  the  chimney  became  almost  red-hot.  Such  engines, 
when  put  to  their  speed,  were  found  capable  of  running 
at  the  rate  of  from  twelve  to  sixteen  miles  an  hour ;  but 
they  were  better  adapted  for  the  heavy  work  of  hauling 
coal-trains  at  low  speed — for  which,  indeed,  they  were 
specially  constructed  —  than  for  running  at  the  higher 
speed  afterward  adopted.  Nor  was  it  contemplated  by  the 
directors  as  possible,  at  the  time  when  they  were  oidered, 
that  locomotives  could  be  made  available  for  the  purposes 
of  passenger  travelling.  Besides,  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Railway  did  not  run  through  a  district  in  which 
passengers  were  supposed  to  be  likely  to  constitute  any 
considerable  portion  of  the  traffic. 

We  may  easily  imagine  the  anxiety  felt  by  George  Ste- 
phenson  during  the  progress  of  the  works  toward  comple- 
tion, and  his  mingled  hopes  and  doubts  —  though  the 
doubts  were  but  few  —  as  to  the  issue  of  this  great  ex- 
periment. When  the  formation  of  the  line  near  Stockton 
was  well  advanced,  the  engineer  one  day,  accompanied 
by  his  son  Robert  and  John  Dixon,  made  a  journey  of 


A    GREA  T  DA  Y.  2O5 

inspection  of  the  works.  The  party  reached  Stockton, 
and  proceeded  to  dine  at  one  of  the  inns  there.  After 
dinner,  Stephenson  ventured  on  the  very  unusual  measure 
of  ordering  in  a  bottle  of  wine,  to  drink  success  to  the 
railway.  John  Dixon  relates  with  pride  the  utterance  of 
the  master  on  the  occasioa  "Now,  lads,"  said  he  to 
the  two  young  men,  "  I  venture  to  tell  you  that  I  think 
you  will  live  to  see  the  day  when  railways  will  supersede 
almost  all  other  methods  of  conveyance  in  this  country, 
—  when  mail-coaches  will  go  by  railway,  and  railroads 
will  become  the  great  highways  for  the  king  and  all  his 
subjects.  The  time  is  coming  when  it  will  be  cheaper  for 
a  working  man  to  travel  on  a  railway  than  to  walk  on  foot. 
I  know  there  are  great  and  almost  insurmountable  diffi- 
culties to  be  encountered,  but  what  I  have  said  will  come 
to  pass  as  sure  as  you  now  hear  me.  I  only  wish  I  may 
live  to  see  the  day,  though  that  I  can  scarcely  hope  for, 
as  I  know  how  slow  all  human  progress  is,  and  with  what 
difficulty  I  have  been  able  to  get  the  locomotive  intro- 
duced thus  far,  notwithstanding  my  more  than  ten  years' 
successful  experiment  at  Killingworth."  The  result,  how- 
ever, outstripped  even  George  Stephenson's  most  sanguine 
expectations ;  and  his  son  Robert,  shortly  after  his  return 
from  America  in  1827,  saw  his  father's  locomotive  gener- 
ally adopted  as  the  tractive  power  on  mining-railways. 

Tuesday,  the  2yth  of  September,  1825,  was  a  great  day 
for  Darlington.  The  railway,  after  having  been  under 
construction  for  more  than  three  years,  was  at  length 
about  to  be  opened.  The  project  had  been  the  talk  of 
the  neighborhood  for  so  long  that  there  were  few  people 
within  a  range  of  twenty  miles  who  did  not  feel  more  or 
less  interested  about  it.  Was  it  to  be  a  failure  or  a  suc- 
cess ?  Opinions  were  pretty  equally  divided  as  to  the  rail- 


206  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

way ;  but  as  regarded  the  locomotive,  the  general  belief  was 
that  it  would  "never  answer."  However,  there  was  the 
locomotive  "  No.  i  "  delivered  upon  the  line,  and  ready 
to  draw  the  first  train  of  wagons  on  the  opening  day. 

A  great  concourse  of  people  assembled  on  the  occa- 
sion. Some  came  from  Newcastle  and  Durham,  many 
from  the  Aucklands,  while  Darlington  held  a  general  holi- 
day and  turned  out  all  its  population.  To  give  eclat  to 
the  opening,  the  directors  of  the  company  issued  a  pro- 
gramme of  the  proceedings,  intimating  the  times  at  which 
the  procession  of  wagons  would  pass  certain  points  along 
the  line.  The  proprietors  assembled  as  early  as  six  in  the 
morning  at  the  Brusselton  fixed  engine,  where  the  work- 
ing of  the  inclined  planes  was  successfully  rehearsed.  A 
train  of  wagons  laden  with  coals  and  merchandise  was 
drawn  up  the  western  incline  by  the  fixed  engine,  a  length 
of  nineteen  hundred  and  sixty  yards  in  seven  and  a  half 
minutes,  and  then  lowered  down  the  incline  on  the  east- 
ern side  of  the  hill,  eight  hundred  and  eighty  yards,  in  five 
minutes. 

At  the  foot  of  the  incline  the  procession  of  vehicles  was 
formed,  consisting  of  the  locomotive  engine  No.  i,  driven 
by  George  Stephenson  himself;  after  it,  six  wagons  loaded 
with  coals  and  flour;  then  a  covered  coach  containing 
directors  and  proprietors ;  next,  twenty-one  coal-wagons 
fitted  up  for  passengers  (with  which  they  were  crammed)  ; 
and  lastly,  six  more  wagons  loaded  with  coals. 

Strange  to  say,  a  man  on  a  horse,  carrying  a  flag  with 
the  motto  of  the  company  inscribed  on  it,  Periculum  pri- 
vatum  utilitas  publica^  headed  the  procession  !  A  litho- 
graphic view  of  the  great  event,  published  shortly  after, 
duly  exhibits  the  horseman  and  his  flag.  It  was  not 

i  "  The  private  risk  is  the  public  benefit." 


OUT  AND  BACK.  207 

thought  so  dangerous  a  place,  after  all.  The  locomotive 
was  only  supposed  to  be  able  to  go  at  the  rate  of  from 
four  to  six  miles  an  hour,  and  an  ordinary  horse  could 
easily  keep  ahead  of  that. 

Off  started  the  procession,  with  the  horseman  at  its 
head.  A  great  concourse  of  people  stood  along  the  line. 
Many  of  them  tried  to  accompany  it  by  running,  and  some 
gentlemen  on  horseback  galloped  across  the  fields  to 
keep  up  with  the  train.  The  railway  descending  with  a 
gentle  decline  toward  Darlington,  the  rate  of  speed  was 
consequently  variable.  At  a  favorable  part  of  the  road 
Stephenson  determined  to  try  the  speed  of  the  engine, 
and  he  called  upon  the  horseman  with  the  flag  to  get  out 
of  his  way  !  Most  probably,  deeming  it  unnecessary  to 
carry  his  periculum  privatum  farther,  the  horseman  turned 
aside,  and  Stephenson  "  put  on  the  steam."  The  speed 
was  at  once  raised  to  twelve  miles  an  hour,  and,  at  a 
favorable  part  of  the  road,  to  fifteen.  The  runners  on  foot, 
the  gentlemen  on  horseback,  and  the  horseman  with  the 
flag  were  consequently  soon  left  far  behind.  When  the 
train  reached  Darlington,  it  was  found  that  four  hundred 
and  fifty  passengers  occupied  the  wagons,  and  that  the 
load  of  men,  coals,  and  merchandise  amounted  to  about 
ninety  tons. 

At  Darlington  the  procession  was  rearranged.  The  six 
loaded  coal-wagons  were  left  behind,  and  other  wagons 
were  taken  on  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  more  passengers, 
together  with  a  band  of  music.  The  train  then  started 
for  Stockton,  —  a  distance  of  only  twelve  miles,  —  which 
was  reached  in  about  three  hours.  The  day  was  kept 
throughout  the  district  as  a  holiday ;  and  horses,  gigs, 
carts,  and  other  vehicles,  filled  with  people,  stood  along 
the  railway,  as  well  as  crowds  of  persons  on  foot,  waiting 


2O8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

to  see  the  train  pass.  The  whole  population  of  Stockton 
turned  out  to  receive  the  procession,  and,  after  a  walk 
through  the  streets,  the  inevitable  dinner  in  the  Town 
Hall  wound  up  the  day's  proceedings. 

The  principal  circumstances  connected  with  the  con- 
struction of  the  "Rocket,"  as  described  by  Robert  Ste- 
phenson  to  Mr.  Smiles,  may  be  briefly  stated.  The 
tubular  principle  was  adopted  in  a  more  complete  manner 
than  had  yet  been  attempted.  Twenty-five  copper  tubes, 
each  three  inches  in  diameter,  extended  from  one  end  of 
the  boiler  to  the  other,  the  heated  air  passing  through 
them  on  its  way  to  the  chimney;  and  the  tubes  being 
surrounded  by  the  water  of  the  boiler.  It  will  be  obvious 
that  a  large  extension  of  the  heating  surface  was  thus 
effectually  secured.  The  principal  difficulty  was  in  fitting 
the  copper  tubes  in  the  boiler  ends  so  as  to  prevent  leak- 
age. They  were  manufactured  by  a  Newcastle  copper- 
smith, and  soldered  to  brass  screws  which  were  screwed 
into  the  boiler  ends,  standing  out  in  great  knobs.  When 
the  tubes  were  thus  fitted,  and  the  boiler  was  filled  with 
water,  hydraulic  pressure  was  applied ;  but  the  water 
squirted  out  at  every  joint,  and  the  factory  floor  was  soon 
flooded.  Robert  went  home  in  despair ;  and  in  the  first 
moment  of  grief  he  wrote  to  his  father  that  the  whole 
thing  was  a  failure.  By  return  of  post  came  a  letter  from 
his  father,  telling  him  that  despair  was  not  to  be  thought 
of,  —  that  he  must  "  try  again ;  "  and  he  suggested  a 
mode  of  overcoming  the  difficulty,  which  his  son  had  al- 
ready anticipated  and  proceeded  to  adopt.  It  was  to 
bore  clean  holes  in  the  boiler  ends,  fit  in  the  smooth  cop- 
per tubes  as  tightly  as  possible,  solder  up,  and  then  raise 
the  steam.  This  plan  succeeded  perfectly ;  the  expansion 


THE  STEAM-BLAST. 


of  the  copper  completely  filling  up  all  interstices,  and  pro- 
ducing a  perfectly  water-tight  boiler,  capable  of  standing 
extreme  external  pressure. 

The  mode  of  employing  the  steam-blast  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  the  draught  in  the  chimney,  was  also  the 
subject  of  numerous  experiments.  When  the  engine  was 
first  tried,  it  was  thought  that  the  blast  in  the  chimney 
was  not  sufficiently  strong  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  up 
the  intensity  of  the  fire  in  the  furnace,  so  as  to  produce 
high-pressure  steam  with  the  required  velocity.  The  ex- 
pedient was  therefore  adopted  of  hammering  the  copper 
tubes  at  the  point  at  which  they  entered  the  chimney, 
whereby  the  blast  was  considerably  sharpened  ;  and  on  a 
farther  trial  it  was  found  that  the  draught  was  increased 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  enable  abundance  of  steam  to  be 
raised.  The  rationale  of  the  blast  may  be  simply  ex- 
plained by  referring  to  the  effect  of  contracting  the  pipe 
of  a  water-hose,  by  which  the  force  of  the  jet  of  water  is 
proportionately  increased.  Widen  the  nozzle  of  the  pipe 
and  the  jet  is,  in  like  manner,  diminished.  So  is  it  with 
the  steam-blast  in  the  chimney  of  the  locomotive. 

Doubts  were,  however,  expressed  whether  the  greater 
draught  obtained  by  the  contraction  of  the  blast-pipe  were 
not  counterbalanced  in  some  degree  by  the  pressure  upon 
the  piston.  Hence  a  series  of  experiments  was  made 
with  pipes  of  different  diameters,  and  their  efficiency  was 
tested  by  the  amount  of  vacuum  that  was  produced  in  the 
smoke-box.  The  degree  of  rarefaction  was  determined 
by  a  glass  tube  fixed  to  the  bottom  of  the  smoke-box,  and 
descending  into  a  bucket  of  water,  the  tube  being  open 
at  both  ends.  As  the  rarefaction  took  place,  the  water 
would  of  course  rise  in  the  tube,  and  the  height  to  which 
it  rose  above  the  surface  of  the  water  in  the  bucket  was 

14 


210  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

made  the  measure  of  the  amount  of  rarefaction.  These 
experiments  proved  that  a  considerable  increase  of  draught 
was  obtained  by  the  contraction  of  the  orifice ;  accord- 
ingly, the  two  blast-pipes  opening  from  the  cylinders  into 
either  side  of  the  "  Rocket "  chimney,  and  turned  up 
within  it,  were  contracted  slightly  below  the  area  of  the 
steam-ports;  and  before  the  engine  left  the  factory,  the 
water  rose  in  the  glass  tube  three  inches  above  the  water 
in  the  bucket. 

The  other  arrangements  of  the  "  Rocket "  were  briefly 
these  :  The  boiler  was  cylindrical  with  flat  ends,  six  feet  in 
length,  and  three  feet  four  inches  in  diameter.  The  up- 
per half  of  the  boiler  was  used  as  a  reservoir  for  the  steam, 
the  lower  half  being  filled  with  water.  Through  the  lower 
part  the  copper  tubes  extended,  being  open  to  the  fire- 
box at  one  end,  and  to  the  chimney  at  the  other.  The 
fire-box,  or  furnace,  two  feet  wide  and  three  feet  high, 
was  attached  immediately  behind  the  boiler,  and  was  also 
surrounded  with  water.  The  cylinders  of  the  engine  were 
placed  on  each  side  of  the  boiler,  in  an  oblique  position, 
one  end  being  nearly  level  with  the  top  of  the  boiler  at  its 
after  end,  and  the  other  pointing  toward  the  centre  of  the 
foremost  or  driving  pair  of  wheels,  with  which  the  con- 
nection was  directly  made  from  the  piston-rod  to  a  pin  on 
the  outside  of  the  wheel.  The  engine,  together  with  its 
load  of  water,  weighed  only  four  tons  and  a  quarter ;  and 
it  was  supported  on  four  wheels,  not  coupled.  The  ten- 
der was  four-wheeled,  and  similar  in  shape  to  a  wagon,  — 
the  foremost  part  holding  the  fuel,  and  the  hind  part  a 
water-cask. 

When  the  "  Rocket "  was  finished,  it  was  placed  upon 
the  Killingworth  Railway  for  the  purpose  of  experiment. 
The  new  boiler  arrangement  was  found  perfectly  success- 


THE  LIVERPOOL    TRIAL.  211 

ful.  The  steam  was  raised  rapidly  and  continuously,  and 
in  a  quantity  which  then  appeared  marvellous.  The 
same  evening  Robert  despatched  a  letter  to  his  father 
at  Liverpool,  informing  him  to  his  great  joy,  that  the 
"Rocket"  was  "all  right,"  and  would  be  in  complete 
working  trim  by  the  day  of  trial.  The  engine  was  shortly 
after  sent  by  wagon  to  Carlisle,  and  thence  shipped  for 
Liverpool. 

The  time  so  much  longed  for  by  George  Stephenson 
had  now  arrived,  when  the  merits  of  the  passenger  loco- 
motive were  about  to  be  put  to  the  test.  He  had  fought 
the  battle  for  it  until  now,  almost  single-handed.  En- 
grossed by  his  daily  labors  and  anxieties,  and  harassed 
by  difficulties  and  discouragements  which  would  have 
crushed  the  spirit  of  a  less  resolute  man,  he  had  held 
firmly  to  his  purpose  through  good  and  through  evil  re- 
port. The  hostility  which  he  had  experienced  from  some 
of  the  directors  opposed  to  the  adoption  of  the  locomotive, 
was  the  circumstance  that  caused  him  the  greatest  grief  of 
all ;  for  where  he  had  looked  for  encouragement,  he  found 
only  carping  and  opposition.  But  his  pluck  never  failed 
him;  and  now  the  "Rocket"  was  upon  the  ground  to 
prove,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  whether  he  was  a  man  of 
his  word  or  not." 

Great  interest  was  felt  at  Liverpool,  as  well  as  through- 
out the  country,  in  the  approaching  competition.  En- 
gineers, scientific  men,  and  mechanics  arrived  from  all 
quarters  to  witness  the  Hovel  display  of  mechanical  inge- 
nuity on  which  such  great  results  depended.  The  public 
generally  were  no  indifferent  spectators,  either.  The  pop- 
ulations of  Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  the  adjacent  towns 
felt  that  the  successful  issue  of  the  experiment  would 
confer  upon  them  individual  benefits  and  local  advantages 


212  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

almost  incalculable,  while  populations  at  a  distance  waited 
for  the  result  with  almost  equal  interest. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  great  competition  of  loco- 
motives at  Rainhill,  the  following  engines  were  entered  for 
the  prize  :  — 

1.  Messrs.  Braithwaite  and  Ericsson's  "Novelty." 

2.  Mr.  Timothy  Hackworth's  "  Sanspareil." 

3.  Messrs.  R.  Stephenson  &  Co.'s  "  Rocket." 

4.  Mr.  Burstall's  "Perseverance." 

Another  engine  was  entered  by  Mr.  Brandreth,  of  Liv- 
erpool,—  the  "Cycloped,"  weighing  three  tons,  worked 
by  a  horse  in  a  frame,  —  but  it  could  not  be  admitted  to 
the  competition.  The  above  were  the  only  four  exhib- 
ited, out  of  a  considerable  number  of  engines  constructed 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  in  anticipation  of  this 
contest,  many  of  which  could  not  be  satisfactorily  com- 
pleted by  the  day  of  trial. 

The  day  fixed  for  the  competition  was  the  ist  of  Octo- 
ber ;  but  to  allow  sufficient  time  to  get  the  locomotives 
into  good  working  order,  the  directors  extended  it  to  the 
6th.  On  the  morning  of  the  6th  the  ground  at  Rainhill 
presented  a  lively  appearance,  and  there  was  as  much 
excitement  as  if  the  St.  Leger  were  about  to  be  run. 
Many  thousand  spectators  looked  on,  among  whom  were 
some  of  the  first  engineers  and  mechanicians  of  the  day. 
A  stand  was  provided  for  the  ladies;  the  "beauty  and 
fashion  "  of  the  neighborhood  were  present,  and  the  side 
of  the  railroad  was  lined  with  carriages  of  all  descriptions. 

It  was  quite  characteristic  of  the  Stephensons  that 
although  their  engine  did  not  stand  first  on  the  list  for 
trial,  it  was  the  first  that  was  ready ;  and  it  was  accordingly 
ordered  out  by  the  judges  for  an  experimental  trip.  Yet 
the  "  Rocket "  was  by  no  means  the  "  favorite  "  with 


"NOVELTY"  AND  " SANSPAREIL."  21$ 

either  the  judges  or  the  spectators.  Nicholas  Wood  has 
since  stated  that  the  majority  of  the  judges  were  strongly 
predisposed  in  favor  of  the  "  Novelty,"  and  that  nine 
tenths,  if  not  ten  tenths,  of  the  persons  present  were  against 
the  "  Rocket "  because  of  its  appearance.1  Nearly  every 
person  favored  some  other  engine,  so  that  there  was 
nothing  for  the  "Rocket"  but  the  practical  test.  The 
first  trip  made  by  it  was  quite  successful.  It  ran  about 
twelve  miles,  without  interruption,,  in  about  fifty-three 
minutes.  • 

The  "  Novelty "  was  next  called  out.  It  was  a  light 
engine,  very  compact  in  appearance,  carrying  the  water 
and  fuel  upon  the  same  wheels  as  the  engine.  The  weight 
of  the  whole  was  only  three  tons  and  one  hundred- weight. 
A  peculiarity  of  this  engine  was  that  the  air  was  driven  or 
forced  through  the  fire  by  means  of  bellows.  The  day 
being  now  far  advanced,  and  some  dispute  having  arisen 
as  to  the  method  of  assigning  the  proper  load  for  the 
"  Novelty,"  no  particular  experiment  was  made  farther  than 
that  the  engine  traversed  the  line  by  way  of  exhibition, 
occasionally  moving  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  miles  an 
hour.  The  "  Sanspareil,"  constructed  by  Mr.  Timothy 
Hackworth,  was  next  exhibited,  but  no  particular  experi- 
ment was  made  with  it  on  this  day.  This  engine  differed 
but  little  in  its  construction  from  the  locomotive  last  sup- 
plied by  the  Stephensons  to  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Railway,  of  which  Mr.  Hackworth  was  the  locomotive 
foreman. 

The  contest  was  postponed  until  the  following  day ;  but 
before  the  judges  arrived  on  the  ground,  the  bellows  for 
creating  the  blast  in  the  "  Novelty  "  gave  way,  and  it  was 

1  It  had  a  sort  of  resemblance  to  a  grasshopper,  caused  by  the  angle  at 
which  the  piston  and  cylinder  were  placed. 


214  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

found  incapable  of  going  through  its  performance.  A 
defect  was  also  detected  in  the  boiler  of  the  "-Sanspareil," 
and  some  farther  time  was  allowed  to  get  it  repaired.  The 
large  number  of  spectators  who  had  assembled  to  witness 
the  contest  were  greatly  disappointed  at  this  postpone- 
ment ;  but  to  lessen  it,  Stephenson  again  brought  out  the 
"  Rocket,"  and  attaching  to  it  a  coach  containing  thirty- 
four  persons,  he  ran  them  along  the  line  at  the  rate  of  from 
twenty-four  to  thirty  miles  an  hour,  much  to  their  gratifica- 
tion and  amazement.  Before  separating,  the  judges  or- 
dered the  engine  to  be  in  readiness  by  eight  o'clock  on 
the  following  morning,  to  go  through  its  definitive  trial 
according  to  the  prescribed  conditions. 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  October  the  "  Rocket " 
was  again  ready  for  the  contest.  The  engine  was  taken  to 
the  extremity  of  the  stage,  the  fire-box  was  filled  with 
coke,  the  fire  lighted,  and  the  steam  raised  until  it  lifted 
the  safety-valve  loaded  to  a  pressure  of  fifty  pounds  to  the 
square  inch.  This  proceeding  occupied  fifty-seven  min- 
utes. The  engine  then  started  on  its  journey,  dragging 
after  it  about  thirteen  tons  weight  in  wagons,  and  made 
the  first  ten  trips  backward  and  forward  along  the  two 
miles  of  road,  running  the  thirty-five  miles,  including  stop- 
pages, in  an  hour  and  forty-eight  minutes.  The  second 
ten  trips  were  in  like  manner  performed  in  two  hours  and 
three  minutes.  The  maximum  velocity  attained  during 
the  trial  trip  was  twenty-nine  miles  an  hour,  or  about  three 
times  the  speed  that  one  of  the  judges  of  the  competition 
had  declared  to  be  the  limit  of  possibility.  The  average 
speed  at  which  the  whole  of  the  journeys  were  performed 
was  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  or  five  miles  beyond  the  rate 
specified  in  the  conditions  published  by  the  company. 
The  entire  performance  excited  the  greatest  astonishment 


TRIAL   CONTINUED.  21$ 

among  the  assembled  spectators ;  the  directors  felt  confi- 
dent that  their  enterprise  was  now  on  the  eve  of  success ; 
and  George  Stephenson  rejoiced  to  think  that,  in  spite  of 
all  false  prophets  and  fickle  counsellors,  the  locomotive 
system  was  now  safe.  When  the  "  Rocket,"  having  per- 
formed all  the  conditions  of  the  contest,  arrived  at  the 
"  grand  stand  "  at  the  close  of  its  day's  successful  run,  Mr. 
Cropper  —  one  of  the  directors  favorable  to  the  fixed- 
engine  system — lifted  up  his  hands,  and  exclaimed,  "Now 
has  George  Stephenson  at  last  delivered  himself." 

Neither  the  "  Novelty  "  nor  the  "  Sanspareil  "  was  ready 
for  trial  until  the  roth,  on  the  morning  of  which  day  an 
advertisement  appeared,  stating  that  the  former  engine  was 
to  be  tried  on  that  day,  when  it  would  perform  more  work 
than  any  engine  on  the  ground.  The  weight  of  the  car- 
riages attached  to  it  was  only  seven  tons.  The  engine 
passed  the  first  post  in  good  style ;  but  in  returning,  the 
pipe  from  the  forcing-pump  burst  and  put  an  end  to  the 
trial.  The  pipe  was  afterward  repaired,  and  the  engine 
made  several  trips  by  itself,  in  which  it  was  said  to  have 
gone  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-four  to  twenty- eight  miles 
an  hour. 

The  "Sanspareil"  was  not  ready  until  the  i3th;  and 
when  its  boiler  and  tender  were  filled  with  water,  it  was 
found  to  weigh  four  hundred-weight  beyond  the  weight 
specified  in  the  published  conditions  as  the  limit  of  four- 
wheeled  engines ;  nevertheless,  the  judges  allowed  it  to  run 
on  the  same  footing  as  the  other  engines,  to  enable  them 
to  ascertain  whether  its  merits  entitled  it  to  favorable  con- 
sideration. It  travelled  at  the  average  speed  of  about 
fourteen  miles  an  hour  with  its  load  attached  ;  but  at  the 
eighth  trip  the  cold-water  pump  got  wrong,  and  the  engine 
could  proceed  no  farther. 


2l6  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

It  was  determined  to  award  the  premium  to  the  suc- 
cessful engine  on  the  following  day,  the  i4th,  on  which 
occasion  there  was  an  unusual  assemblage  of  spectators. 
The  owners  of  the  "  Novelty  "  pleaded  for  another  trial, 
and  it  was  conceded.  But  again  it  broke  down.  Then 
Mr.  Hackworth  requested  the  opportunity  for  making 
another  trial  of  his  "  Sanspareil."  But  the  judges  had  now 
had  enough  of  failures,  and  they  declined,  on  the  ground 
that  not  only  was  the  engine  above  the  stipulated  weight, 
but  that  it  was  constructed  on  a  plan  which  they  could  not 
recommend  for  adoption  by  the  directors  of  the  company. 
One  of  the  principal  practical  objections  to  this  locomotive 
was  the  enormous  quantity  of  coke  consumed  or  wasted 
by  it,  —  about  six  hundred  and  ninety-two  pounds  per 
hour  when  travelling,  —  caused  by  the  sharpness  of  the 
steam-blast  in  the  chimney,  which  blew  a  large  proportion 
of  the  burning  coke  into  the  air. 

The  "  Perseverance  "  of  Mr.  Burstall  was  found  unable 
to  move  at  more  than  five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  and  it  was 
withdrawn  from  the  contest  at  an  early  period.  The 
"  Rocket  "  was  thus  the  only  engine  that  had  performed, 
and  more  than  performed,  all  the  stipulated  conditions ; 
and  it  was  declared  to  be  entitled  to  the  prize  of  ,£500, 
which  was  awarded  to  the  Messrs.  Stephenson  and  Booth l 
accordingly.  And  farther  to  show  that  the  engine  had 
been  working  quite  within  its  powers,  George  Stephenson 
ordered  it  to  be  brought  upon  the  ground  and  detached 
from  all  incumbrances,  when,  in  making  two  trips,  it  was 
found  to  travel  at  the  astonishing  rate  of  thirty-five  miles 
an  hour. 

The  "Rocket"  had  thus  eclipsed  the  performances  of 

1  Mr.  Henry  Booth,  secretary  to  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway, 
suggested  to  Mr.  Stephenson  the  idea  of  a  raultitubular  boiler. 


LETTER  FROM  ALTO  ON  A. 


all  locomotive  engines  that  had  yet  been  constructed,  and 
outstripped  even  the  sanguine  expectations  of  its  con- 
structors. It  satisfactorily  answered  the  report  of  Messrs. 
Walker  and  Rastrick,  and  established  the  efficiency  of  the 
locomotive  for  working  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Railway,  and  indeed  all  future  railways.  The  "  Rocket  " 
showed  that  a  new  power  had  been  born  into  the  world, 
full  of  activity  and  strength,  with  boundless  capability  of 
work.  It  was  the  simple  but  admirable  contrivance  of  the 
steam-blast,  and  its  combination  with  the  multitubular 
boiler,  that  at  once  gave  locomotion  a  vigorous  life,  and 
secured  the  triumph  of  the  railway  system.  As  has  been 
well  observed,  this  wonderful  ability  to  increase  and  mul- 
tiply its  powers  of  performance  with  the  emergency  that 
demands  them,  has  made  this  giant  engine  the  noblest 
creation  of  'human  wit,  the  very  lion  among  machines. 

The  success  of  the  Rainhill  experiment,  as  judged  by 
the  public,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  shares  of 
the  company  immediately  rose  ten  per  cent,  and  nothing 
farther  was  heard  of  the  proposed  twenty-one  fixed  en- 
gines, engine-houses,  ropes,  etc.  All  this  cumbersome 
apparatus  was  thenceforth  effectually  disposed  of. 

When  the  reading  was  over,  Bedford  said  :  "  When  I 
heard  you  were  going  to  have  George  Stephenson  this 
afternoon,  I  wrote  to  my  cousin  Prentiss  Armstrong,  who 
has  been  at  the  locomotive  works  at  Altoona  for  several 
years,  and  asked  him  about  locomotives  nowadays,  that  I 
might  be  able  to  compare  them  with  the  locomotives  of 
George  Stephenson's  time.  This  is  his  letter,  which  I  '11 
read,  if  there  be  no  objection  :  "  — 

DEAR  BEDFORD,  —  Speaking  roughly,  a  freight-engine 
of  the  "  Consolidation  "  type  (eight  driving-wheels  and  two 


2l8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

truck-wheels)  weighs  from  forty-seven  to  forty-eight  tons 
of  two  thousand  pounds.  On  a  road  with  no  grades  over 
twenty  feet  to  the  mile  (i  in  250)  it  will  haul  over  one 
thousand  tons  at  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  If  the  train  is  of 
merchandise,  it  will  be  of  say  fifty  cars,  each  weighing  ten 
tons  and  carrying  ten  tons.  If  it  is  of  coal  or  ore,  the 
cars  will  each  carry  twenty  or  twenty-five  tons." 

["  The  '  Rocket,'  "  said  Bedford,  "  which  was  the  suc- 
cessful engine  at  the  Rainhill  competition,  weighed  a  little 
over  four  tons  and  had  four  wheels.  Dragging  a  weight  of 
thirteen  tons  in  wagons,  it  made  thirty-five  miles  in  about 
two  hours."] 

Our  Engine  No.  2  [continued  the  letter]  made  a  mile 
on  a  level  in  forty-three  seconds  with  no  train,  but  there 
are  very  few  such  records.  Two  of  our  fast  trains  (four 
cars  each,  weighing  twenty-five  tons)  make  a  schedule 
in  one  place  (level)  of  nine  miles  in  eight  minutes.  I 
have  seen  a  record  of  a  run  on  the  Bound  Brook  route 
of  four  cars,  ten  miles  in  eight  minutes.  I  think  this  must 
have  been  down  hill. 

I  hope  these  facts  will  answer  your  views.  If  there  's 
anything  else  that  I  can  get  up  for  you,  I  shall  be  glad  to 
doit. 

Yours  truly, 

PRENTISS  ARMSTRONG. 


XL 

ELI  WHITNEY. 

THE  young  people  all  came  in  laughing. 
"  And  what  is  it?  "  said  Uncle  Fritz,  good-naturedly. 

"  It  is  this,"  said  Alice,  "  that  I  say  that  all  this  is  very 
entertaining  about  Palissy  the  Potter  and  Benvenuto  Cel- 
lini ;  and  I  have  been  boasting  that  I  know  as  much  of  the 
steam-engine  as  Lucy  did,  who  was  '  sister  to  Harry.'  But 
I  do  not  see  that  this  is  going  to  profit  Blanche  when  she 
shall  make  her  celebrated  visit  to  Mr.  Bright,  and  when  he 
asks  her  what  is  the  last  sweet  thing  in  creels  or  in  fly- 
frames." 

"  Is  it  certain  that  Blanche  is  to  go?  "  said  Uncle  Fritz, 
doubtfully. 

"  Oh,  dear,  Uncle  Fritz,  do  you  know?  "  said  Blanche,  in 
mock  heroics  ;  "  are  you  in  the  sacred  circle  which  decides  ? 
Will  the  Vesuvius  pass  its  dividend,  or  will  it  scatter  its 
blessings  right  and  left,  so  that  we  can  go  to  Paris  and  all 
the  world  be  happy  ?  " 

"  I  wish  I  knew,"  said  Colonel  Ingham  ;  "  for  on  that 
same  dividend  depends  the  question  whether  I  build  four 
new  rooms  at  Little  Crastis  for  the  accommodation  of  my 
young  friends  when  they  visit  me  there." 

"  Could  you  tell  us,"  said  Fergus,  "  what  is  the  cause  of 
the  depression  in  the  cotton-manufacture?" 

"  Don't  tell  him,  Uncle  Fritz,"  said  Fanchon,  "  for  the 
two  best  of  reasons,  —  first,  that  half  of  us  will  not  un- 


22O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

derstand  if  you  do ;  and  second,  that  none  of  us  will 
remember." 

Colonel  Ingham  laughed.  "  And  third,"  he  said,  "  that 
we  are  to  talk  about  Inventions  and  Inventors,  and  we 
shall  not  get  to  Fergus's  grand  question  till  we  come  to  the 
series  on  '  Political  Economy  and  Political  Economists/ 

"  You  are  all  quite  right  in  all  your  suggestions  and 
criticisms.  It  is  quite  time  that  you  girls  should  know 
something  of  the  industry  which  is  important  not  only  to 
all  the  Southern  States,  but  to  all  the  manufacturing  States. 
Cotton  is  the  cheapest  article  for  clothing  in  the  world,  and 
the  use  of  it  goes  farther  and  farther  every  year.  The 
manufacture  is  also  improving  steadily.  Thirty  men, 
women,  and  children  will  make  as  much  cotton  cloth 
to-day  as  a  hundred  could  make  the  year  you  were  born, 
Hester.  I  saw  cottons  for  sale  to-day  at  four  cents  a  yard 
which  would  have  cost  nearly  three  times  that  money 
thirty  years  ago.  So  I  have  laid  out  for  you  these  sketches 
of  the  life  of  Eli  Whitney,  on  whose  simple  invention,  as 
you  remember,  all  this  wealth  of  production  may  be  said 
to  depend.  You  college  boys  ought  to  be  pleased  to 
know,  that  within  a  year  after  this  man  graduated  from 
Yale  College,  he  had  made  an  invention  and  set  it  a  going, 
which  entirely  changed  the  face  of  things  in  his  own 
country.  At  that  moment  there  was  so  little  cotton  raised 
in  America,  that  Whitney  himself  had  never  seen  cotton 
wool  or  cotton  seed,  when  he  was  first  asked  if  he  could 
make  a  machine  which  would  separate  one  from  the  other. 
It  was  so  little  known,  indeed,  that  when  John  Jay  of  New 
York  negotiated  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  England  in 
1 794,  the  year  after  Whitney's  invention,  he  did  not  know 
that  any  cotton  was  produced  in  the  United  States.  The 
treaty  did  not  provide  for  our  cotton,  and  had  to  be 


COTTON.  221 

changed  after  it  was  brought  back  to  America.  With  this 
invention  by  Whitney,  it  was  possible  to  clean  cotton  from 
the  seed.  The  Southern  States,  which  before  had  no 
staple  of  importance,  had  in  that  moment  an  immense  ad- 
dition to  their  resources.  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
and  Tennessee,  besides  the  States  in  the  old  thirteen,  were 
settled  almost  wholly  to  call  into  being  new  lands  for 
raising  cotton.  To  these  were  afterwards  added  Arkan- 
sas, Florida,  and  Texas.  With  this  new  industry  slave 
labor  became  vastly  more  profitable ;  and  the  institution 
of  slavery,  which  would  else  have  died  out  probably,  re- 
ceived an  immense  stimulus.  Fortunately  for  the  country 
and  the  world,  the  Constitution  had  fixed  the  year  1808, 
as  the  end  of  the  African  slave  trade.  But,  up  to  that 
date,  slaves  were  pushed  in  with  a  constantly  increasing 
rapidity,  so  that  the  new  States  were  peopled  very  largely 
with  absolute  barbarians.  There  is  hardly  another  in- 
stance in  history  where  it  is  so  easy  to  trace  in  a  very  few 
years,  results  so  tremendous  following  from  a  single  inven- 
tion by  a  single  man. 

"  Fortunately  for  us,  Miss  Lamb  has  just  published  a 
portrait  of  Eli  Whitney  in  the  '  Magazine  of  History.' 
Here  it  is,  in  the  October  number  of  the  '  Magazine  of 
History.' 

"As  to  processes  of  manufacture,  of  course  we  can 
learn  little  or  nothing  about  them  here.  But  you  had 
better  read  carefully  this  article  in  lire's  (  Dictionary  of 
Arts/  though  it  is  a  little  old-fashioned,  and  then  you  will 
be  prepared  to  make  up  parties  to  go  out  to  the  Hecla,  or 
up  to  Lowell  or  Lawrence,  where  you  can  see  with  your 
own  eyes. 

"  And  now  I  will  read  you  a  little  sketch  of  the  life  of 
Eli  Whitney." 


222  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 


ELI   WHITNEY. 

Eli  Whitney  was  born  at  Westborough,  Worcester 
County,  Massachusetts,  Dec.  8,  1765.  His  parents  be- 
longed to  the  middle  class  in  society,  who,  by  the  labors 
of  husbandry,  managed  by  uniform  industry  and  strict  fru- 
gality to  provide  well  for  a  rising  family. 

The  paternal  ancestors  of  Mr.  Whitney  emigrated  from 
England  among  the  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts,  and 
their  descendants  were  among  the  most  respectable  farm- 
ers of  Worcester  County.  His  maternal  ancestors,  of  the 
name  of  Fay,  were  also  English  emigrants,  and  ranked 
among  the  substantial  yeomanry  of  Massachusetts.  A 
family  tradition  respecting  the  occasion  of  their  com- 
ing to  this  country  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  history 
of  the  times.  The  story  is,  that  about  two  hundred  years 
ago,  the  father  of  the  family,  who  resided  in  England,  a 
man  of  large  property  and  great  respectability,  called  to- 
gether his  sons  and  addressed  them  thus :  "  America  is 
to  be  a  great  country.  I  am  too  old  to  emigrate  myself ; 
but  if  any  one  of  you  will  go,  I  will  give  him  a  double 
share  of  my  property."  The*  youngest  son  instantly  de- 
clared his  willingness  to  go,  and  his  brothers  gave  their 
consent.  He  soon  set  off  for  the  New  World,  and  landed 
in  Boston,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  place  he  pur- 
chased a  large  tract  of  land,  where  he  enjoyed  the  satisfac- 
tion of  receiving  two  visits  from  his  venerable  father.  His 
son  John  Fay,  from  whom  the  subject  of  this  memoir  is 
immediately  descended,  removed  from  Boston  to  West- 
borough,  where  he  became  the  proprietor  of  a  large  tract 
of  land,  since  known  by  the  name  of  the  Fay  Farm. 

From  the  sister  of  Mr.  Whitney,  we  have  derived  some 
particulars  respecting  his  childhood  and  youth,  and  we 


EARLY  INVENTIONS.  22$ 

shall  present  the  anecdotes  to  our  readers  in  the  artless 
style  in  which  they  are  related  by  our  correspondent,  be- 
lieving that  they  would  be  more  acceptable  in  this  simple 
dress  than  if,  according  to  the  modest  suggestion  of  the 
writer,  they  should  be  invested  with  a  more  labored  dic- 
tion. The  following  incident,  though  trivial  in  itself,  will 
serve  to  show  at  how  early  a  period  certain  qualities  of 
strong  feeling  tempered  by  prudence,  for  which  Mr.  Whit- 
ney afterward  became  distinguished,  began  to  display  them- 
selves. When  he  was  six  or  seven  years  old  he  had 
overheard  the  kitchen  maid,  in  a  fit  of  passion,  calling  his 
mother,  who  was  in  a  delicate  state  of  health,  hard  names, 
at  which  he  expressed  great  displeasure  to  his  sister. 
"  She  thought,"  said  he,  "  that  I  was  not  big  enough  to 
hear  her  talk  so  about  my  mother.  I  think  she  ought  to 
have  a  flogging ;  and  if  I  knew  how  to  bring  it  about,  she 
should  have  one."  His  sister  advised  him  to  tell  their 
father.  "No,"  he  replied,  "it  will  hurt  his  feelings  and 
mother's  too ;  and  besides,  it  is  likely  the  girl  will  say  she 
never  said  so,  and  that  would  make  a  quarrel.  It  is  best 
to  say  nothing  about  it." 

Indications  of  his  mechanical  genius  were  likewise  de- 
veloped at  a  very  early  age.  Of  his  early  passion  for 
such  employments,  his  sister  gives  the  following  account : 
"  Our  father  had  a  workshop,  and  sometimes  made  wheels 
of  different  kinds,  and  chairs.  He  had  a  variety  of  tools, 
and  a  lathe  for  turning  chair-posts.  This  gave  my  brother 
an  opportunity  of  learning  the  use  of  tools  when  very 
young.  He  lost  no  time  ;  but  as  soon  as  he  could  handle 
tools,  he  was  always  making  something  in  the  shop,  and 
seemed  not  to  like  working  on  the  farm.  On  a  time,  after 
the  death  of  our  mother,  when  our  father  had  been  absent 
from  home  two  or  three  days,  on  his  return  he  inquired  of 


224  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

the  housekeeper  what  the  boys  had  been  doing.  She  told 
him  what  B.  and  J.  had  been  about.  '  But  what  has  Eli 
been  doing?'  said  he.  She  replied  he  had  been  making 
a  fiddle.  '  Ah/  said  he,  despondingly,  '  I  fear  Eli  will 
have  to  take  his  portion  in  fiddles.'  He  was  at  this  time 
about  twelve  years  old.  His  sister  adds  that  this  fiddle 
was  finished  throughout,  like  a  common  violin,  and  made 
tolerably  good  music.  It  was  examined  by  many  persons, 
and  all  pronounced  it  to  be  a  remarkable  piece  of  work 
for  such  a  boy  to  perform.  From  this  time  he  was  em- 
ployed to  repair  violins,  and  had  many  nice  jobs,  which 
were  always  executed  to  the  entire  satisfaction,  and  often 
to  the  astonishment,  of  his  customers.  His  father's  watch 
being  the  greatest  piece  of  mechanism  that  had  yet  pre- 
sented itself  to  his  observation,  he  was  extremely  desirous 
of  examining  its  interior  construction,  but  was  not  permit- 
ted to  do  so.  One  Sunday  morning,  observing  that  his 
father  was  going  to  meeting,  and  would  leave  at  home  the 
wonderful  little  machine,  he  immediately  feigned  illness  as 
an  apology  for  not  going  to  church.  As  soon  as  the  fam- 
ily were  out  of  sight,  he  flew  to  the  room  where  the  watch 
hung,  and  taking  it  down  he  was  so  delighted  with  its 
motions  that  he  took  it  all  to  pieces  before  he  thought  of 
the  consequences  of  his  rash  deed ;  for  his  father  was  a 
stern  parent,  and  punishment  would  have  been  the  reward 
of  his  idle  curiosity,  had  the  mischief  been  detected.  He, 
however,  put  all  the  work  so  neatly  together  that  his  father 
never  discovered  his  audacity  until  he  himself  told  him, 
many  years  afterwards. 

"  Whitney  lost  his  mother  at  an  early  age,  and  when  he 
was  thirteen  years  old  his  father  married  a  second  time. 
His  stepmother,  among  her  articles  of  furniture,  had  a 
handsome  set  of  table  knives  that  she  valued  very  highly. 


WHITNE  Y'S   YOUTH.  22 5 

Whitney  could  not  but  see  this,  and  said  to  her,  '  I  could 
make  as  good  ones  if  I  had  tools,  and  I  could  make  the  ne- 
cessary tools  if  I  had  a  few  common  tools  to  make  them 
with.'  His  stepmother  thought  he  was  deriding  her,  and  was 
much  displeased ;  but  it  so  happened,  not  long  afterwards, 
that  one  of  the  knives  got  broken,  and  he  made  one  ex- 
actly like  it  in  every  respect  except  the  stamp  on  the  blade. 
This  he  would  likewise  have  executed,  had  not  the  tools 
required  been  too  expensive  for  his  slender  resources." 

When  Whitney  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age  he 
suggested  to  his  father  an  enterprise,  which  was  an  earnest 
of  the  similar  undertakings  in  which  he  engaged  on  a  far 
greater  scale  in  later  life.  This  being  the  time  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  nails  were  in  great  demand  and  bore 
a  high  price.  At  that  period  nails  were  made  chiefly  by 
hand,  with  little  aid  from  machinery.  Young  Whitney 
proposed  to  his  father  to  procure  him  a  few  tools,  and  to 
permit  him  to  set  up  the  manufacture.  His  father  con- 
sented ;  and  he  went  steadily  to  work,  and  suffered  nothing 
to  divert  him  from  his  task  until  his  day's  work  was  com- 
pleted. By  extraordinary  diligence  he  gained  time  to 
make  tools  for  his  own  use,  and  to  put  in  knife-blades,  and 
to  perform  many  other  curious  little  jobs  which  exceeded 
the  skill  of  the  country  artisans.  At  this  laborious  occupa- 
tion the  enterprising  boy  wrought  alone,  with  great  success, 
and  with  much  profit  to  his  father,  for  two  winters,  pursu- 
ing the  ordinary  labors  of  the  farm  during  the  summers. 
At  this  time  he  devised  a  plan  for  enlarging  his  business 
and  increasing  his  profits.  He  whispered  his  scheme  to 
his  sister,  with  strong  injunctions  of  secrecy ;  and  request- 
ing leave  of  his  father  to  go  to  a  neighboring  town,  without 
specifying  his  object,  he  set  out  on  horseback  in  quest  of 
a  fellow-laborer.  Not  finding  one  as  easily  as  he  had 

15 


226  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

anticipated,  he  proceeded  from  town  to  town  with  a  per- 
severance which  was  always  a  strong  trait  of  his  character, 
until,  at  a  distance  of  forty  miles  from  home,  he  found 
such  a  workman  as  he  desired.  He  also  made  his  journey 
subservient  to  his  mechanical  skill,  for  he  called  at  every 
workshop  on  his  way  and  gleaned  all  the  information  he 
could  respecting  the  mechanical  arts. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  the  business  of  making  nails  was 
no  longer  profitable ;  but  a  fashion  prevailing  among  the 
ladies  of  fastening  on  their  bonnets  with  long  pins,  he 
contrived  to  make  those  with  such  skill  and  dexterity  that 
he  nearly  monopolized  the  business,  although  he  devoted 
to  it  only  such  seasons  of  leisure  as  he  could  redeem  from 
the  occupations  of  the  farm,  to  which  he  now  principally 
betook  himself.  He  added  to  this  article,  the  manufacture 
of  walking-canes,  which  he  made  with  peculiar  neatness. 

In  respect  to  his  proficiency  in  learning  while  young,  we 
are  informed  that  he  early  manifested  a  fondness  for  fig- 
ures and  an  uncommon  aptitude  for  arithmetical  calcula- 
tions, though  in  the  other  rudiments  of  education  he  was 
not  particularly  distinguished.  Yet  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
he  had  acquired  so  much  general  information,  as  to  be 
regarded  on  this  account,  as  well  as  on  account  of  his 
mechanical  skill,  a  very  remarkable  boy. 

From  the  age  of  nineteen,  young  Whitney  conceived 
the  idea  of  obtaining  a  liberal  education ;  but,  being  warmly 
opposed  by  his  stepmother,  he  was  unable  to  procure  the 
decided  consent  of  his  father,  until  he  had  reached  the  age 
of  twenty-three  years.  But,  partly  by  the  avails  of  his 
manual  labor  and  partly  by  teaching  a  village  school,  he 
had  been  so  far  able  to  surmount  the  obstacles  thrown  in 
his  way,  that  he  had  prepared  himself  for  the  Freshman 
Class  in  Yale  College,  which  he  entered  in  May,  1 789. 


TUTOR   IN  GEORGIA.  22J 

The  propensity  of  Mr.  Whitney  to  mechanical  inven- 
tions and  occupations,  was  frequently  apparent  during  his 
residence  at  college.  On  a  particular  occasion,  one  of  the 
tutors,  happening  to  mention  some  interesting  philosophi- 
cal experiment,  regretted  that  he  could  not  exhibit  it  to 
his  pupils,  because  the  apparatus  was  out  of  order  and 
must  be  sent  abroad  to  be  repaired.  Mr.  Whitney  pro- 
posed to  undertake  this  task,  and  performed  it  greatly  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  faculty  of  the  college. 

A  carpenter  being  at  work  upon  one  of  the  buildings  of 
the  gentleman  with  whom  Mr.  Whitney  boarded,  the  latter 
begged  permission  to  use  his  tools,  during  the  intervals  of 
study ;  but  the  mechanic,  being  a  man  of  careful  habits, 
was  unwilling  to  trust  them  with  a  student,  and  it  was  only 
after  the  gentleman  of  the  house  had  become  responsible 
for  all  damages,  that  he  would  grant  the  permission.  But 
Mr.  Whitney  had  no  sooner  commenced  his  operations 
than  the  carpenter  was  surprised  at  his  dexterity,  and  ex- 
claimed, "  There  was  one  good  mechanic  spoiled  when 
you  went  to  college." 

Soon  after  Mr.  Whitney  took  his  degree,  in  the  autumn 
of  1792,  he  entered  into  an  engagement  with  a  Mr.  B.  of 
Georgia,  to  reside  in  his  family  as  a  private  teacher.  On 
his  way  thither,  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  the  company 
of  Mrs.  Greene,  the  widow  of  General  Greene,  who,  with 
her  family,  was  returning  to  Savannah  after  spending  the 
summer  at  the  North.  At  that  time  it  was  deemed  unsafe 
to  travel  through  our  country  without  having  had  the 
small-pox,  and  accordingly  Mr.  Whitney  prepared  himself  for 
the  excursion,  by  procuring  inoculation  while  in  New  York. 
As  soon  as  he  was  sufficiently  recovered,  the  party  set  sail 
for  Savannah.  As  his  health  was  not  fully  re-established, 
Mrs.  Greene  kindly  invited  him  to  go  with  the  family  to 


228  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

her  residence  at  Mulberry  Grove,  near  Savannah,  and 
remain  until  he  was  recruited.  The  invitation  was  ac- 
cepted ;  but  lest  he  should  not  yet  have  lost  all  power  of 
communicating  that  dreadful  disease,  Mrs.  Greene  had 
white  flags  (the  meaning  of  which  was  well  understood) 
hoisted  at  the  landing  and  at  all  the  avenues  leading  to 
the  house.  As  a  requital  for  her  hospitality,  her  guest 
procured  the  virus  and  inoculated  all  the  servants  of  the 
household,  more  than  fifty  in  number,  and  carried  them 
safely  through  the  disorder. 

Mr.  Whitney  had  scarcely  set  his  foot  in  Georgia,  before 
he  was  met  by  a  disappointment  which  was  an  earnest  of 
that  long  series  of  adverse  events  which,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  attended  all  his  future  negotiations  in  the  same 
State.  On  his  arrival  he  was  informed  that  Mr.  B.  had 
employed  another  teacher,  leaving  Whitney  entirely  without 
resources  or  friends,  except  those  whom  he  had  made  in 
the  family  of  General  Greene.  In  these  benevolent  people, 
however,  his  case  excited  much  interest ;  and  Mrs.  Greene 
kindly  said  to  him,  "  My  young  friend,  you  propose  study- 
ing the  law;  make  my  house  your  home,  your  room 
your  castle,  and  there  pursue  what  studies  you  please." 
He  accordingly  began  the  study  of  the  law  under  that 
hospitable  roof. 

Mrs.  Greene  was  engaged  in  a  piece  of  embroidery  in 
which  she  employed  a  peculiar  kind  of  frame,  called  a 
tambour.  She  complained  that  it  was  badly  constructed, 
and  that  it  tore  the  delicate  threads  of  her  work.  Mr. 
Whitney,  eager  for  an  opportunity  to  oblige  his  hostess,  set 
himself  to  work  and  speedily  produced  a  tambour-frame, 
made  on  a  plan  entirely  new,  which  he  presented  to  her. 
Mrs.  Greene  and  her  family  were  greatly  delighted  with  it, 
and  thought  it  a  wonderful  proof  of  ingenuity. 


THE  NEED   OF  A    COTTON-GIN.  22Q 

Not  long  afterwards  a  large  party  of  gentlemen,  consist- 
ing principally  of  officers  who  had  served  under  the  Gen- 
eral in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  came  from  Augusta  and 
the  upper  country,  to  visit  the  family  of  General  Greene. 
They  fell  into  conversation  upon  the  state  of  agriculture 
among  them,  and  expressed  great  regret  that  there  was  no 
means  of  cleansing  the  green  seed  cotton,  or  separating  it 
from  its  seed,  since  all  the  lands  which  were  unsuitable  for 
the  cultivation  of  rice,  would  yield  large  crops  of  cotton. 
But  until  ingenuity  could  devise  some  machine  which 
would  greatly  facilitate  the  process  of  cleaning,  it  was  vain 
to  think  of  raising  cotton  for  market.  Separating  one 
pound  of  the  clean  staple  from  the  seed  was  a.  day's  work 
for  a  woman ;  but  the  time  usually  devoted  to  picking 
cotton  was  the  evening,  after  the  labor  of  the  field  was 
over.  Then  the  slaves  — men,  women,  and  children —  were 
collected  in  circles,  with  one  whose  duty  it  was  to  rouse 
the  dozing  and  quicken  the  indolent.  While  the  company 
were  engaged  in  this  conversation,  "  Gentlemen,"  said 
Mrs.  Greene,  "  apply  to  my  young  friend  Mr.  Whitney ; 
he  can  make  anything."  Upon  which  she  conducted 
them  into  a  neighboring  room,  and  showed  them  her  tam- 
bour-frame and  a  number  of  toys  which  Mr.  Whitney  had 
made  or  repaired  for  the  children.  She  then  introduced 
the  gentlemen  to  Whitney  himself,  extolling  his  genius 
and  commending  him  to  their  notice  and  friendship.  He 
modestly  disclaimed  all  pretensions  to  mechanical  genius ; 
and  when  they  named  their  object,  he  replied  that  he  had 
never  seen  either  cotton  or  cotton  seed  in  his  life.  Mrs. 
Greene  said  to  one  of  the  gentlemen,  "  I  have  accom- 
plished my  aim.  Mr.  Whitney  is  a  very  deserving  young 
man,  and  to  bring  him  into  notice  was  my  object.  The 
interest  which  our  friends  now  feel  for  him  will,  I  hope, 


230  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

lead  to  his  getting  some  employment  to  enable  him  to 
prosecute  the  study  of  the  law." 

But  a  new  turn,  that  no  one  of  the  company  dreamed  of, 
had  been  given  to  Mr.  Whitney's  views.  It  being  out  of 
season  for  cotton  in  the  seed,  he  went  to  Savannah  and 
searched  among  the  warehouses  and  boats  until  he  found 
a  small  parcel  of  it.  This  he  carried  home,  and  communi- 
cated his  intentions  to  Mr.  Miller,  who  warmly  encouraged 
him,  and  assigned  him  a  room  in  the  basement  of  the  house, 
where  he  set  himself  to  work  with  such  rude  materials  and 
instruments  as  a  Georgia  plantation  afforded.  With  these 
resources,  however,  he  made  tools  better  suited  to  his  pur- 
pose, and  drew  his  own  wire  (of  which  the  teeth  of  the 
earliest  gins  were  made),  —  an  article  which  was  not  at  that 
time  to  be  found  in  the  market  of  Savannah.  Mrs.  Greene 
and  Mr.  Miller  were  the  only  persons  ever  admitted  to  his 
workshop,  and  the  only  persons  who  knew  in  what  way  he 
was  employing  himself.  The  many  hours  he  spent  in  his 
mysterious  pursuits,  afforded  matter  of  great  curiosity  and 
often  of  raillery  to  the  younger  members  of  the  family. 
Near  the  close  of  the  winter,  the  machine  was  so  nearly 
completed  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  success. 

Mrs.  Greene  was  eager  to  communicate  to  her  numerous 
friends  the  knowledge  of  this  important  invention,  pecul- 
iarly important  at  that  time,  because  then  the  market  was 
glutted  with  all  those  articles  which  were  suited  to  the  cli- 
mate and  soil  of  Georgia,  and  nothing  could  be  found  to 
give  occupation  to  the  negroes  and  support  to  the  white 
inhabitants.  This  opened  suddenly  to  the  planters  bound- 
less resources  of  wealth,  and  rendered  the  occupations  of 
the  slaves  less  unhealthy  and  laborious  than  they  had  been 
before. 

Mrs.  Greene,  therefore,  invited  to  her  house  gentlemen 


PHINEAS  MILLER.  2$l 

from  different  parts  of  the  State  ;  and  on  the  first  day  after 
they  had  assembled,  she  conducted  them  to  a  temporary 
building  which  had  been  erected  for  the  machine,  and 
they  saw  with  astonishment  and  delight,  that  more  cotton 
could  be  separated  from  the  seed  in  one  day,  by  the  labor 
of  a  single  hand,  than  could  be  done  in  the  usual  manner 
in  the  space  of  many  months. 

Mr.  Whitney  might  now  have  indulged  in  bright  reveries 
of  fortune  and  of  fame  ;  but  we  shall  have  various  oppor- 
tunities of  seeing  that  he  tempered  his  inventive  genius 
with  an  unusual  share  of  the  calm,  considerate  qualities  of 
the  financier.  Although  urged  by  his  friends  to  secure  a 
patent  and  devote  himself  to  the  manufacture  and  intro- 
duction of  his  machines,  he  coolly  replied  that,  on  account 
of  the  great  expenses  and  trouble  which  always  attend  the 
introduction  of  a  new  invention,  and  the  difficulty  of 
enforcing  a  law  in  favor  of  patentees,  in  opposition  to 
the  individual  interests  of  so  large  a  number  of  persons  as 
would  be  concerned  in  the  culture  of  this  article,  it  was 
with  great  reluctance  that  he  should  consent  to  relinquish 
the  hopes  of  a  lucrative  profession,  for  which  he  had  been 
destined,  with  an  expectation  of  indemnity  either  from  the 
justice  or  the  gratitude  of  his  countrymen,  even  should 
the  invention  answer  the  most  sanguine  anticipations  of 
his  friends. 

The  individual  who  contributed  most  to  incite  him  to 
persevere  in  the  undertaking,  was  Phineas  Miller.  Mr. 
Miller  was  a  native  of  Connecticut  and  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College.  Like  Mr.  Whitney,  soon  after  he  had  completed 
his  education  at  college,  he  came  to  Georgia  as  a  private 
teacher  in  the  family  of  General  Greene,  and  after  the  de- 
cease of  the  General,  he  became  the  husband  of  Mrs. 
Greene.  He  had  qualified  himself  for  the  profession  of 


232  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

the  law,  and  was  a  gentleman  of  cultivated  mind  and 
superior  talents ;  but  he  was  of  an  ardent  temperament, 
and  therefore  well  fitted  to  enter  with  zeal  into  the  views 
which  the  genius  of  his  friend  had  laid  open  to  him.  He 
also  had  considerable  funds  at  command,  and  proposed 
to  Mr.  Whitney  to  become  his  joint  adventurer,  and  to 
be  at  the  whole  expense  of  maturing  the  invention  until  it 
should  be  patented.  If  the  machine  should  succeed  in  its 
intended  operation,  the  parties  agreed,  under  legal  formali- 
ties, "  that  the  profits  and  advantages  arising  therefrom,  as 
well  as  all  privileges  and  emoluments  to  be  derived  from 
patenting,  making,  vending,  and  working  the  same,  should 
be  mutually  and  equally  shared  between  them."  This 
instrument  bears  date  May  27,  1793;  and  immediately 
afterward  they  commenced  business  under  the  firm  of 
Miller  and  Whitney. 

An  invention  so  important  to  the  agricultural  interest 
(and,  as  it  has  proved,  to  every  department  of  human 
industry)  could  not  long  remain  a  secret.  The  knowl- 
edge of  it  soon  spread  through  the  State,  and  so  great  was 
the  excitement  on  the  subject,  that  multitudes  of"  persons 
came  from  all  quarters  of  the  State  to  see  the  machine ; 
but  it  was  not  deemed  safe  to  gratify  their  curiosity  until 
the  patent  right  had  been  secured.  But  so  determined 
were  some  of  the  populace  to  possess  this  treasure,  that 
neither  law  nor  justice  could  restrain  them ;  they-  broke 
open  the  building  by  night,  and  carried  off  the  machine. 
In  this  way  the  public  became  possessed  of  the  invention  ; 
and  before  Mr.  Whitney  could  complete  his  model  and 
secure  his  patent,  a  number  of  machines  were  in  success- 
ful operation,  constructed  with  some  slight  deviation  from 
the  original,  with  the  hope  of  escaping  the  penalty  for 
evading  the  patent  right. 


THE  PATENT.  233 

As  soon  as  the  copartnership  of  Miller  and  Whitney 
was  formed,  Mr.  Whitney  repaired  to  Connecticut,  where, 
as  far  as  possible,  he  was  to  perfect  the  machine,  obtain 
a  patent,  and  manufacture  and  ship  to  Georgia  such  a 
number  of  machines  as  would  supply  the  demand. 

Within  three  days  after  the  conclusion  of  the  copartner- 
ship, Mr.  Whitney  having  set  out  for  the  North,  Mr.  Mil- 
ler commenced  his  long  correspondence  relative  to  the 
cotton-gin.  The  first  letter  announces  that  encroach- 
ments upon  their  rights  had  already  begun.  "It  will 
be  necessary,"  says  Mr.  Miller,  "  to  have  a  consider- 
able number  of  gins  made,  to  be  in  readiness  to  send  out 
as  soon  as  the  patent  is  obtained,  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
absolute  demands,  and  make  people's  heads  easy  on  the 
subject ;  for  I  am  informed  of  two  other  claimants  for  the 
honor  of  the  invention  of  cotton-gins,  in  addition  to  those 
we  knew  before" 

On  the  2oth  of  June,  1 793,  Mr.  Whitney  presented  his 
patent  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  Secretary  of  State ;  but  the 
prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia  (which  was 
then  the  seat  of  government)  prevented  his  concluding 
the  business  relative  to  the  patent  until  several  months 
afterwards.  To  prevent  being  anticipated,  he  took,  how- 
ever, the  precaution  to  make  oath  to  the  invention  before 
the  notary  public  of  the  city  of  New  Haven,  which  he 
did  on  the  28th  of  October  of  the  same  year. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  much  curiosity  in  regard  to 
mechanical  inventions,  took  a  peculiar  interest  in  this 
machine,  and  addressed  to  the  inventor  an  obliging  letter, 
desiring  farther  particulars  respecting  it,  and  expressing  a 
wish  to  procure  one  for  his  own  use.1  Mr.  Whitney  ac- 
cordingly sketched  the  history  of  the  invention,  and  of  the 

1  This  letter  is  dated  Nov.  24,  1793. 


234  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

construction  and  performances  of  the  machine.  "  It  is 
about  a  year,"  says  he,  "  since  I  first  turned  my  attention 
to  constructing  this  machine,  at  which  time  I  was  in  the 
State  of  Georgia.  Within  about  ten  days  after  my  first 
conception  of  the  plan,  I  made  a  small  though  imperfect 
model.  Experiments  with  this  encouraged  me  to  make 
one  on  a  larger  scale  ;  but  the  extreme  difficulty  of  pro- 
curing workmen  and  proper  materials  in  Georgia  pre- 
vented my  completing  the  larger  one  until  some  time  in 
April  last.  This,  though  much  larger  than  my  first  at- 
tempt, is  not  above  one  third  as  large  as  the  machines  may 
be  made  with  convenience.  The  cylinder  is  only  two 
feet  two  inches  in  length,  and  six  inches  in  diameter.  It 
is  turned  by  hand,  and  requires  the  strength  of  one  man 
to  keep  it  in  constant  motion.  It  is  the  stated  task  of  one 
negro  to  clean  fifty  weight  (I  mean  fifty  pounds  after  it  is 
separated  from  the  seed)  of  the  green  cotton  seed  per  day." 
In  the  year  1812  Mr.  Whitney  made  application  to 
Congress  for  the  renewal  of  his  patent  for  the  cotton- 
gin.  In  his  memorial  he  presented  a  history  of  the  strug- 
gles he  had  been  forced  to  encounter  in  defence  of  his 
right,  observing  that  he  had  been  unable  to  obtain  any 
decision  on  the  merits  of  his  claim  until  he  had  been 
eleven  years  in  the  law,  and  thirteen  years  of  his  patent 
term  had  expired.  He  sets  forth  that  his  invention  had 
been  a  source  of  opulence  to  thousands  of  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States ;  that,  as  a  labor-saving  machine,  it 
would  enable  one  man  to  perform  the  work  of  a  thousand 
men ;  and  that  it  furnishes  to  the  whole  family  of  man- 
kind, at  a  very  cheap  rate,  the  most  essential  article  of 
their  clothing.  Hence  he  humbly  conceived  himself  en- 
titled to  a  further  remuneration  from  his  country,  and 
thought  he  ought  to  be  admitted  to  a  more  liberal  par- 


SAVING    TO    THE   COUNTRY.  235 

ticipation  with  his  fellow- citizens  in  the  benefits  of  his  in- 
vention. Although  so  great  advantages  had  been  already 
experienced,  and  the  prospect  of  future  benefits  was  so 
promising,  still,  many  of  those  whose  interest  had  been 
most  enhanced  by  this  invention,  had  obstinately  persisted 
in  refusing  to  make  any  compensation  to  the  inventor. 
The  very  men  whose  wealth  had  been  acquired  by  the 
use  of  this  machine,  and  who  had  grown  rich  beyond  all 
former  example,  had  combined  their  exertions  to  prevent 
the  patentee  from  deriving  any  emolument  from  his  inven- 
tion. From  that  State  in  which  he  had  first  made  and 
where  he  had  first  introduced  his  machine,  and  which  had 
derived  the  most  signal  benefits  from  it,  he  had  received 
nothing ;  and  from  no  State  had  he  received  the  amount 
of  half  a  cent  per  pound  on  the  cotton  cleaned  with  his 
machines  in  one  year.  Estimating  the  value  of  the  labor 
of  one  man  at  twenty  cents  per  day,  the  whole  amount 
which  had  been  received  by  him  for  his  invention  was  not 
equal  to  the  value  of  the  labor  saved  in  one  hour  by  his 
machines  then  in  use  in  the  United  States.  "  This  inven- 
tion," he  proceeds,  "  now  gives  to  the  southern  section  of 
the  Union,  over  and  above  the  profits  which  would  be 
derived  from  the  cultivation  of  any  other  crop,  an  annual 
emolument  of  at  least  three  millions  of  dollars."1  The 
foregoing  statement  does  not  rest  on  conjecture,  it  is  no 
visionary  speculation,  —  all  these  advantages  have  been 
realized ;  the  planters  of  the  Southern  States  have  counted 
the  cash,  felt  the  weight  of  it  in  their  pockets,  and  heard 
the  exhilarating  sound  of  its  collision.  Nor  do  the  advan- 
tages stop  here.  This  immense  source  of  wealth  is  but  just 
beginning  to  be  opened.  Cotton  is  a  more  cleanly  and 

1  This  was  in  1812,  twenty  years  after  the  invention  ofc  the  gin.     The 
saving  in  1885  is  enormously  greater. 


236  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

healthful  article  of  cultivation  than  tobacco  and  indigo, 
which  it  has  superseded,  and  does  not  so  much  impover- 
ish the  soil.  This  invention  has  already  trebled  the  value 
of  the  land  through  a  large  extent  of  territory ;  and  the 
degree  to  which  the  cultivation  of  cotton  may  be  still  aug- 
mented, is  altogether  incalculable.  This  species  of  cotton 
has  been  known  in  all  countries  where  cotton  has  been 
raised,  from  time  immemorial,  but  was  never  known  as  an 
article  of  commerce  until  since  this  method  of  cleaning  it 
was  discovered.  In  short  (to  quote  the  language  of  Judge 
Johnson),  "if  we  should  assert  that  the  benefits  of  this  in- 
vention exceed  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  we  could 
prove  the  assertion  by  correct  calculation."  It  is  objected 
that  if  the  patentee  succeeds  in  procuring  the  renewal  of 
his  patent,  he  will  be  too  rich.  There  is  no  probability 
that  the  patentee,  if  the  term  of  his  patent  were  extended 
for  twenty  years,  would  ever  obtain  for  his  invention  one 
half  as  much  as  many  an  individual  will  gain  by  use  of  it. 
Up  to  the  present  time,  the  whole  amount  of  what  he  has 
acquired  from  this  source  (after  deducting  his  expenses) 
does  not  exceed  one  half  the  sum  which  a  single  individ- 
ual has  gained  by  the  use  of  the  machine  in  one  year.  It 
is  true  that  considerable  sums  have  been  obtained  from 
some  of  the  States  where  the  machine  is  used ;  but  no 
small  portion  of  these  sums  has  been  expended  in  pros- 
ecuting his  claim  in  a  State  where  nothing  has  been  ob- 
tained, and  where  his  machine  has  been  used  to  the 
greatest  advantage. 

There  was  much  more  which  was  curious,  laid  out  in 
different  books ;  but  the  call  came  for  supper,  and  the 
young  peopk  obeyed. 


XII. 

JAMES  NASMYTH. 
THE    STEAM-HAMMER. 

"  IV /TY  dear  Uncle  Fritz,  I  have  found  something  very 

.-*'     precious." 

"  I  hope  it  is  a  pearl  necklace,  my  dear,"  was  his  reply, 
"though  I  see  no  one  who  needs  such  ornaments  less." 

Hester  waltzed  round  the  room,  and  dropped  a  very 
low  courtesy  before  Uncle  Fritz  in  acknowledgment  of  his 
compliment ;  and  all  the  others  clapped  their  hands.  They 
asked  her,  more  clamorously  than  Uncle  Fritz,  what  she 
had  found. 

"  I  have  found  a  man —  " 

"That  is  more  than  Diogenes  could." 

"  Horace,  I  shall  send  you  out  of  the  room,  or  back  on 
first  principles.  Do  you  not  know  that  it  is  not  nice  to 
interrupt?" 

"  I  have  found  a  man,  Uncle  Fritz,  who  is  an  inventor, 
a  great  inventor ;  and  he  is  very  nice,  and  he  likes  people 
and  people  like  him,  and  he  always  succeeds,  — his  things 
turn  out  well,  like  Dr.  Franklin's ;  and  he  says  the  world 
has  always  been  grateful  to  him.  He  never  sulks  or  com- 
plains ;  he  knows  all  about  the  moon,  and  makes  wonder- 
ful pictures  of  it ;  and  he  's  enormously  rich,  I  believe, 
too,  —  but  that 's  not  so  much  matter.  The  best  of  all  is, 
that  he  began  just  as  we  begin.  He  had  a  nice  father  and 


238  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

a  nice  mother  and  a  good  happy  home,  and  was  brought 
up  like  good  decent  children.  Now  really,  Uncle  Fritz, 
you  must  n't  laugh  ;  but  do  you  not  think  that  most  of  the 
people  whose  lives  we  read  have  to  begin  horridly  ?  They 
have  to  be  beaten  when  they  are  apprentices,  or  their 
fathers  and  mothers  have  to  die,  or  they  have  to  walk 
through  Philadelphia  with  loaves  of  bread  under  their  arms, 
or  to  be  brought  up  in  poor-houses  or  something.  Now, 
nothing  of  that  sort  happened  to  my  inventor.  And  I  am 
very  much  encouraged.  For  my  father  never  beat  me,  and 
my  mother  never  scolded  me  half  as  much  as  I  deserved, 
and  I  never  was  in  a  poor-house,  and  I  never  carried  a 
loaf  of  bread  under  my  arm,  and  so  I  really  was  afraid  I 
should  come  to  no  good.  But  now  I  have  found  my 
new  moon-man,  I  am  very  much  encouraged." 

The  others  laughed  heartily  at  Hester's  zeal,  and 
Blanche  asked  what  Hester's  hero  had  invented,  and 
what  was  his  name.  The  others  turned  to  Uncle  Fritz 
half  incredulously.  But  Uncle  Fritz  came  to  Hester's 
relief. 

"  Hester  is  quite  right,"  he  said ;  "  and  his  name  it  is 
James  Nasmyth.  He  has  invented  a  great  many  things, 
quite  necessary  in  the  gigantic  system  of  modern  machine- 
building.  He  has  chosen  the  steam-hammer  for  his  de- 
vice. Here  is  a  picture  of  it  on  the  outside  of  his  Life. 
You  see  I  was  ready  for  you,  Hester." 

The  children  looked  with  interest  on  the  device,  and 
Fergus  said  that  it  was  making  heraldry  do  as  it  should, 
and  speak  in  the  language  of  the  present  time. 

Then  Uncle  Fritz  bade  Hester  find  for  them  a  pas- 
sage in  the  biography  where  Mr.  Nasmyth  tells  how  he 
changed  the  old  motto  of  the  family.  Oddly  enough, 
the  legend  says  that  the  first  Nasmyth  took  his  name 


MICHAEL  NAESMYTH.  239 

after  a  romantic  escape,  when  one  of  his  pursuers,  finding 
him  disguised  as  a  blacksmith,  cried  out,  "  Ye  're  nae 
smyth" 

It  is  a  little  queer  that  this  name  should  have  been 
given  to  the  family  of  a  man,  who,  in  his  time,  forged 
heavier  pieces  of  iron  than  had  ever  been  forged  before, 
and,  indeed,  invented  the  machinery  by  which  this  should 
be  done.  The  old  Scotch  family  had  for  a  motto  the 

words 

"  Non  arte,  sed  Marte." 

With  a  very  just  pride,  James  Nasmyth  has  changed  the 
motto,  and  made  it 

"  Non  Marte,  sed  arte." 

That  is,  while  they  said,  "  Not  by  art,  but  by  war,"  this 
man,  who  has  done  more  work  for  the  world,  directly 
or  indirectly,  than  any  of  Aladdin's  genii,  says,  "  Not  by 
war,  but  by  art." 

Hester  was  well  pleased  that  their  old  friend  justified 
her  enthusiasm  so  entirely.  He  and  she  began  dipping 
into  her  copy  and  his  copy  of  the  biography,  which  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  books  of  our  time. 

JAMES  NASMYTH. 

My  grandfather,  Michael  Naesmyth,  like  his  father  and 
grandfather,  was  a  builder  and  architect.  The  buildings 
he  designed  and  erected  for  the  Scotch  nobility  and 
gentry  were  well  arranged,  carefully  executed,  and  thor- 
oughly substantial.  I  remember  my  father  pointing  out 
to  me  the  extreme  care  and  attention  with  which  he 
finished  his  buildings.  He  inserted  small  fragments  of 
basalt  into  the  mortar  of  the  external  joints  of  the  stones, 


240  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

at  close  and  regular  distances,  in  order  to  protect  the 
mortar  from  the  adverse  action  of  the  weather;  and  to 
this  day  they  give  proof  of  their  efficiency. 

The  excellence  of  my  grandfather's  workmanship  was 
a  thing  that  my  own  father  impressed  upon  me  when  a 
boy.  It  stimulated  in  me  the  desire  to  aim  at  excellence 
in  everything  that  I  undertook,  and  in  all  practical  matters 
to  arrive  at  the  highest  degree  of  good  workmanship.  I 
believe  that  these  early  lessons  had  a  great  influence  upon 
my  future  career. 

My  father,  Alexander  Nasmyth,  was  the  second  son  of 
Michael  Nasmyth.  He  was  born  in  his  father's  house  in 
the  Grassmarket,  on  the  pth  of  September,  1758. 

I  have  not  much  to  say  about  my  father's  education. 
For  the  most  part  he  was  his  own  schoolmaster.  I  have 
heard  him  say  that  his  mother  taught  him  his  ABC, 
and  that  he  afterward  learned  to  read  at  Mammy  Smith's. 
This  old  lady  kept  a  school  for  boys  and  girls  at  the  top 
of  a  house  in  the  Grassmarket.  There  my  father  was 
taught  to  read  his  Bible  and  to  learn  his  Carritch  (the 
Shorter  Catechism). 

My  father's  profession  was  that  of  a  portrait-painter,  to 
begin  with ;  but  later  he  devoted  himself  to  landscape- 
painting.  But  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  this  pursuit. 
He  was  an  all-round  man,  with  something  of  the  uni- 
versal about  him.  He  was  a  painter,  an  architect,  and  a 
mechanic.  Above  all,  he  was  an  incessantly  industrious 
man. 

I  was  born  on  the  morning  of  the  igih  of  August,  1808, 
at  my  father's  house  in  Edinburgh.  I  was  named  James 
Hall,  after  a  dear  friend  of  my  father.  My  mother 
afterward  told  me  that  I  must  have  been  a  "very  no- 
ticin'  bairn,"  as  she  observed  me,  when  I  was  only  a  few 


EARL  Y  INVENTIONS.  24 1 

days  old,  following  with  my  little  eyes  any  one  who  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  room,  as  if  I  had  been  thinking  to  my 
little  self,  "  Who  are  you?  " 

When  I  was  about  four  or  five  years  old  I  was  observed 
to  give  a  decided  preference  to  the  use  of  my  left  hand. 
At  first  everything  was  done  to  prevent  my  using  it  in 
preference  to  the  right,  until  my  father,  after  viewing  a 
little  sketch  I  had  drawn  with  my  left  hand,  allowed  me 
to  go  on  in  my  own  way.  I  used  my  right  hand  in  all 
that  was  necessary,  and  my  left  in  all  sorts  of  practical 
manipulative  affairs.  My  left  hand  has  accordingly  been 
my  most  willing  and  obedient  servant,  and  in  this  way 
I  became  ambidexter. 

In  due  time  I  was  sent  to  school;  and  while  at- 
tending the  High  School,  from  1817  to  1820,  there  was 
the  usual  rage  among  boys  for  spinning-tops,  u  pee- 
ries,"  and  "  young  cannon."  By  means  of  my  father's 
excellent  foot-lathe  I  turned  out  the  spinning-tops  in  capi- 
tal style,  so  much  so  that  I  became  quite  noted  among 
my  school  companions.  They  all  wanted  to  have  speci- 
mens of  my  productions.  They  would  give  any  price  for 
them.  The  peeries  were  turned  with  perfect  accuracy, 
and  the  steel-shod  or  spinning  pivot  was  centred  so  as  to 
correspond  with  the  heaviest  diameter  at  the  top.  They 
would  spin  twice  as  long  as  the  bought  peeries.  When  at 
full  speed  they  would  "  sleep  ;  "  that  is,  turn  round  without 
a  particle  of  wavering.  This  was  considered  high  art  as 
regarded  top-spinning. 

Flying-kites  and  tissue-paper  balloons  were  articles 
that  I  was  also  somewhat  famed  for  producing.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  special  skill  required  for  the  produc- 
tion of  a  flying-kite.  It  must  be  perfectly  still  and  steady 
when  at  its  highest  flight  in  the  air.  Paper  messengers 

16 


242  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

were  sent  up  to  it  along  the  string  which  held  it  to  the 
ground.  The  top  of  the  Calton  Hill  was  the  most 
favorite  place  for  enjoying  this  pleasant  amusement. 

Another  article  for  which  I  became  equally  famous 
was  the  manufacture  of  small  brass  cannon.  These  I 
cast  and  bored,  and  mounted  on  their  appropriate  gun- 
carriages.  They  proved  very  effective,  especially  in  the 
loudness  of  the  report  when  fired.  I  also  converted  large 
cellar-keys  into  a  sort  of  hand-cannon.  A  touch-hole 
was  bored  into  the  barrel  of  the  key,  with  a  sliding  brass 
collar  that  allowed  the  key-guns  to  be  loaded  and  primed, 
ready  for  firing. 

The  principal  occasion  on  which  the  brass  cannon  and 
hand-guns  were  used  was  on  the  4th  of  June,  —  King 
George  the  Third's  birthday.  This  was  always  celebrated 
with  exuberant  and  noisy  loyalty.  The  guns  of  the  Castle 
were  fired  at  noon,  and  the  number  of  shots  corresponded 
with  the  number  of  years  that  the  king  had  reigned. 
The  grand  old  Castle  was  enveloped  in  smoke,  and  the 
discharges  reverberated  along  the  streets  and  among  the 
surrounding  hills.  Everything  was  in  holiday  order.  The 
coaches  were  hung  with  garlands,  the  shops  were  orna- 
mented, the  troops  were  reviewed  on  Bruntsfield  Links, 
and  the  citizens  drank  the  king's  health  at  the  Cross, 
throwing  the  glasses  over  their  backs.  The  boys  fired  off 
gunpowder,  or  threw  squibs  or  crackers,  from  morning 
till  night.  It  was  one  of  the  greatest  schoolboy  events 
of  the  year. 

My  little  brass  cannon  and  hand-guns  were  very  busy 
that  day.  They  were  fired  until  they  became  quite  hot. 
These  were  the  pre-lucifer  days.  The  fire  to  light  the 
powder  at  the  touch-hole  was  obtained  by  the  use  of  a 
flint,  a  steel,  and  a  tinder-box.  The  flint  was  struck 


JUVENILE   CHEMISTRY.  243 

sharply  on  the  steel,  a  spark  of  fire  consequently  fell  into 
the  tinder-box,  and  the  match  (of  hemp  string,  soaked  in 
saltpetre)  was  readily  lit  and  fired  off  the  little  guns. 

One  of  my  attached  cronies  was  Tom  Smith.  Our 
friendship  began  at  the  High  School  in  1818.  A  simi- 
larity of  disposition  bound  us  together.  Smith  was  the  son 
of  an  enterprising  general  merchant  at  Leith.  His  father 
had  a  special  genius  for  practical  chemistry.  He  had 
established  an  extensive  color-manufactory  at  Portobello, 
near  Edinburgh,  where  he  produced  white  lead,  red  lead, 
and  a  great  variety  of  colors,  —  in  the  preparation  of 
which  he  required  a  thorough  knowledge  of  chemistry. 
Tom  Smith  inherited  his  father's  tastes,  and  admitted  me 
to  share  in  his  experiments,  which  were  carried  on  in  a 
chemical  laboratory  situated  behind  his  father's  house  at 
the  bottom  of  Leith  Walk. 

We  had  a  special  means  of  communication.  When 
anything  particular  was  going  on  at  the  laboratory,  Tom 
hoisted  a  white  flag  on  the  top  of  a  high  pole  in  his 
father's  garden.  Though  I  was  more  than  a  mile  away, 
I  kept  a  lookout  in  the  direction  of  the  laboratory  with 
a  spy-glass.  My  father's  house  was  at  the  top  of  Leith 
Walk,  and  Smith's  house  was  at  the  bottom  of  it.  When 
the  flag  was  hoisted  I  could  clearly  see  the  invitation  to 
me  to  come  down.  I  was  only  too  glad  to  run  down  the 
Walk  and  join  my  chum,  to  take  part  in  some  interesting 
chemical  process.  Mr.  Smith,  the  father,  made  me  heart- 
ily welcome.  He  was  pleased  to  see  his  son  so  much  at- 
tached to  me,  and  he  perhaps  believed  that  I  was  worthy 
of  his  friendship.  We  took  zealous  part  in  all  the  chem- 
ical proceedings,  and  in  that  way  Tom  was  fitting  himself 
for  the  business  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Smith  was  a  most  genial-tempered  man.     He  was 


244  STORIES  OF  INVENTION'. 

shrewd  and  quick-witted,  like  a  native  of  York,  as  he  was. 
I  received  the  greatest  kindness  from  him  as  well  as  from 
his  family.  His  house  was  like  a  museum.  It  was  full  of 
cabinets,  in  which  were  placed  choice  and  interesting 
objects  in  natural  history,  geology,  mineralogy,  and  me- 
tallurgy. All  were  represented.  Many  of  these  speci- 
mens had  been  brought  to  him  from  abroad  by  his 
ship-captains,  who  transported  his  color  manufactures  and 
other  commodities  to  foreign  parts. 

My  friend  Tom  Smith  and  I  made  it  a  rule  —  and  in 
this  we  were  encouraged  by  his  father  —  that,  so  far  as 
was  possible,  we  ourselves  should  actually  make  the  acids 
and  other  substances  used  in  our  experiments.  We  were 
not  to  buy  them  ready-made,  as  this  would  have  taken  the 
zest  out  of  our  enjoyment.  We  should  have  lost  the 
pleasure  and  instruction  of  producing  them  by  means  of 
our  own  wits  and  energies.  To  encounter  and  overcome 
a  difficulty  is  the  most  interesting  of  all  things.  Hence, 
though  often  baffled,  we  eventually  produced  perfect  spe- 
cimens of  nitrous,  nitric,  and  muriatic  acids.  We  distilled 
alcohol  from  duly  fermented  sugar  and  water,  and  rectified 
the  resultant  spirit  from  fusel-oil  by  passing  the  alcoholic 
vapor  through  animal  charcoal  before  it  entered  the  worm 
of  the  still.  We  converted  part  of  the  alcohol  into  sul- 
phuric ether.  We  produced  phosphorus  from  old  bones, 
and  elaborated  many  of  the  mysteries  of  chemistry. 

The  amount  of  practical  information  which  we  obtained 
by  this  system  of  making  our  own  chemical  agents,  was 
such  as  to  reward  us,  in  many  respects,  for  the  labor  we 
underwent.  To  outsiders  it  might  appear  a  very  trouble- 
some and  roundabout  way  of  getting  at  the  finally  desired 
result ;  but  I  feel  certain  that  there  is  no  better  method 
of  rooting  chemical  or  any  other  instruction  deeply  in  our 


A   MODEL   ENGINE.  245 

minds.  Indeed,  I  regret  that  the  same  system  is  not  pur- 
sued by  the  youth  of  the  present  day.  They  are  seldom 
if  ever  called  upon  to  exert  their  own  wits  and  industry  to 
obtain  the  requisites  for  their  instruction.  A  great  deal  is 
now  said  about  technical  education ;  but  how  little  there 
is  of  technical  handiness  or  head  work  !  Everything  is 
bought  ready-made  to  their  hands ;  and  hence  there  is  no 
call  for  individual  ingenuity. 

I  left  the  High  School  at  the  end  of  1820.  I  carried 
with  me  a  small  amount  of  Latin  and  no  Greek.  I  do 
not  think  I  was  much  the  better  for  my  small  acquaint- 
ance with  the  dead  languages. 

By  the  time  I  was  seventeen  years  old  I  had  acquired  a 
considerable  amount  of  practical  knowledge  as  to  the  use 
and  handling  of  mechanical  tools,  and  I  desired  to  turn 
it  to  some  account.  I  was  able  to  construct  working 
models  of  steam-engines  and  other  apparatus  required  for 
the  illustration  of  mechanical  subjects.  I  began  with 
making  a  small  working  steam-engine,  for  the  purpose  of 
grinding  the  oil-colors  used  by  my  father  in  his  artistic 
work.  The  result  was  quite  satisfactory.  Many  persons 
came  to  see  my  active  little  steam-engine  at  work ;  and 
they  were  so  pleased  with  it  that  I  received  several  orders 
for  small  workshop  engines,  and  also  for  some  models  of 
steam-engines  to  illustrate  the  subjects  taught  at  Mechan- 
ics' Institutions. 

I  contrived  a  sectional  model  of  a  complete  condensing 
steam-engine  of  the  beam  and  parallel-motion  construc- 
tion. The  model,  as  seen  from  one  side,  exhibited  every 
external  detail  in  full  and  due  action  when  the  fly-wheel 
was  moved  round  by  hand ;  while  on  the  other,  or  sec- 
tional side,  every  detail  of  the  interior  was  seen,  with  the 
steam-valves  and  air-pump,  as  well  as  the  motion  of  the 


246  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

piston  in  the  cylinder,  with  the  construction  of  the  piston 
and  the  stuffing-box,  together  with  the  slide-valve  and 
steam-passages,  all  in  due  position  and  relative  movement. 

I  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  Edinburgh  School  of 
Arts  from  1821  to  1826,  meanwhile  inventing  original 
contrivances  of  various  sorts. 

About  the  year  1827,  when  I  was  nineteen  years  old, 
the  subject  of  steam-carriages  to  run  upon  common  roads 
occupied  considerable  attention.  Several  engineers  and 
mechanical  schemers  had  tried  their  hands,  but  as  yet  no 
substantial  results  had  come  of  their  attempts  to  solve  the 
problem.  Like  others,  I  tried  my  hand.  Having  made  a 
small  working  model  of  a  steam-carriage,  I  exhibited  it 
before  the  members  of  the  Scottish  Society  of  Arts.  The 
performance  of  this  active  little  machine  was  so  gratifying 
to  the  Society,  that  they  requested  me  to  construct  one  of 
such  power  as  to  enable  four  or  six  persons  to  be  con- 
veyed along  the  ordinary  roads.  The  members  of  the 
Society,  in  their  individual  capacity,  subscribed  ;£6o, 
which  they  placed  in  my  hands,  as  the  means  of  carrying 
out  their  project. 

I  accordingly  set  to  work  at  once.  I  had  the  heavy 
parts  of  the  engine  and  carriage  done  at  Anderson's  foun- 
dry at  Leith.  There  was  in  Anderson's  employment  a 
most  able  general  mechanic,  named  Robert  Maclaughlan, 
who  had  served  his  time  at  Carmichael's,  of  Dundee.  An- 
derson possessed  some  excellent  tools,  which  enabled  me 
to  proceed  rapidly  with  the  work.  Besides,  he  was  most 
friendly,  and  took  much  delight  in  being  concerned  in  my 
enterprise.  This  "  big  job  "  was  executed  in  about  four 
months.  The  steam-carriage  was  completed  and  exhib- 
ited before  the  members  of  the  Society  of  Arts.  Many 
successful  trials  were  made  with  it  on  the  Queensferry 


HENRY  MAUDSLEY.  247 

Road,  near  Edinburgh.  The  runs  were  generally  of  four 
or  five  miles,  with  a  load  of  eight  passengers,  sitting  on 
benches  about  three  feet  from  the  ground. 

The  experiments  were  continued  for  nearly  three  months, 
to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  members. 

The  chief  object  of  my  ambition  was  now  to  be  taken 
on  at  Henry  Maudsley's  works  in  London.  I  had  heard 
so  much  of  his  engineering  work,  of  his  assortment  of 
machine-making  tools,  and  of  the  admirable  organization 
of  his  manufactory,  that  I  longed  to  obtain  employment 
there.  But  I  was  aware  that  my  father  had  not  the  means 
of  paying  the  large  premium  required  for  placing  me  there, 
and  I  was  also  informed  that  Maudsley  had  ceased  to  take 
pupils,  they  caused  him  so  much  annoyance.  My  father 
and  I  went  to  London  ;  and  Mr.  Maudsley  received  us  in 
the  most  kind  and  frank  manner,  and  courteously  invited 
us  to  go  round  the  works.  When  this  was  concluded  I 
ventured  to  say  to  Mr.  Maudsley  that  "  I  had  brought  up 
with  me  from  Edinburgh  some  working  models  of  steam- 
engines  and  mechanical  drawings,  and  I  should  feel  truly 
obliged  if  he  would  allow  me  to  show  them  to  him."  "  By 
all  means,"  said  he  ;  "  bring  them  to  me  to-morrow  at 
twelve  o'clock."  I  need  not  say  how  much  pleased  I 
was  at  this  permission  to  exhibit  my  handiwork,  and  how 
anxious  I  felt  as  to  the  result  of  Mr.  Maudsley's  inspection 
of  it. 

I  carefully  unpacked  my  working  model  of  the  steam- 
engine  at  the  carpenter's  shop,  and  had  it  conveyed, 
together  with  my  drawings,  on  a  handcart  to  Mr.  Mauds- 
ley's,  next  morning,  at  the  appointed  hour.  I  was  allowed 
to  place  my  work  for  his  inspection  in  a  room  next  his 
office  and  counting-house.  I  then  called  at  his  residence, 
close  by,  where  he  kindly  received  me  in  his  library.  He 


248  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

asked  me  to  wait  until  he  and  his  partner,  Joshua  Field, 
had  inspected  my  handiwork. 

I  waited  anxiously.  Twenty  long  minutes  passed.  At 
last  he  entered  the  room,  and  from  a  lively  expression  in 
his  countenance  I  observed  in  a  moment  that  the  great 
object  of  my  long-cherished  ambition  had  been  attained. 
He  expressed,  in  good  round  terms,  his  satisfaction  at  my 
practical  ability  as  a  workman,  engineer,  and  mechanical 
draughtsman.  Then,  opening  the  door  which  led  from 
his  library  into  his  beautiful  private  workshop,  he  said, 
"  This  is  where  I  wish  you  to  work,  beside  me,  as  my 
assistant  workman.  From  what  I  have  seen  there  is  no 
need  of  an  apprenticeship  in  your  case." 

One  of  his  favorite  maxims  was,  "  First  get  a  clear  notion 
of  what  you  desire  to  accomplish,  and  then  in  all  proba- 
bility you  will  succeed  in  doing  it."  Another  was,  "  Keep 
a  sharp  lookout  upon  your  materials ;  get  rid  of  every 
pound  of  material  you  can  do  without;  put  to  yourself 
the  question,  '  What  business  has  it  to  be  there  ? '  avoid 
complexities,  and  make  everything  as  simple  as  possible." 
Mr.  Maudsley  was  full  of  quaint  maxims  and  remarks,  — 
the  result  of  much  shrewdness,  keen  observation,  and  great 
experience.  They  were  well  worthy  of  being  stored  up  in 
the  mind,  like  a  set  of  proverbs,  full  of  the  life  and  ex- 
perience of  men.  His  thoughts  became  compressed  into 
pithy  expressions  exhibiting  his  force  of  character  and 
intellect.  His  quaint  remarks  on  my  first  visit  to  his 
workshop  and  on  subsequent  occasions  proved  to  me 
invaluable  guides  to  "right  thinking"  in  regard  to  all 
matters  connected  with  mechanical  structure. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday,  May  30,  1829,  I  began 
my  regular  attendance  at  Mr.  Maudsley's  workshop,  and 
remained  with  him  until  he  died,  Feb.  14,  1831.  It  was 


MANCHESTER.  249 

a  very  sad  thing  for  me  to  lose  my  dear  old  master,  who 
always  treated  me  like  a  friend  and  companion.  At  his 
death  I  passed  over  into  the  service  of  his  worthy  partner, 
Joshua  Field,  until  my  twenty-third  year,  when  I  intended 
to  begin  business  for  myself. 

I  first  settled  myself  at  Manchester,  but  afterwards 
established  a  large  business  outside  of  Manchester  on  the 
Bridgewater  Canal.  In  August,  1836,  the  Bridgewater 
Foundry  was  in  complete  and  efficient  action.  The  en- 
gine ordered  at  Londonderry  was  at  once  put  in  hand, 
and  the  concern  was  fairly  started  in  its  long  career  of 
prosperity.  The  wooden  workshops  had  been  erected 
upon  the  grass,  but  the  greensward  soon  disappeared. 
The  hum  of  the  driving-belts,  the  whirl  of  the  machinery, 
the  sound  of  the  hammer  upon  the  anvil,  gave  the  place 
an  air  of  busy  activity.  As  work  increased,  workmen 
multiplied.  The  workshops  were  enlarged.  Wood  gave 
place  to  brick.  Cottages  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
work-people  sprung  up  in  the  neighborhood,  and  what 
had  once  been  a  quiet  grassy  field  became  the  centre  of 
a  busy  population. 

It  was  a  source  of  vast  enjoyment  to  me,  while  engaged 
in  the  anxious  business  connected  with  the  establishment 
of  the  foundry,  to  be  surrounded  with  so  many  objects 
of  rural  beauty.  The  site  of  the  works  being  on  the  west 
side  of  Manchester,  we  had  the  benefit  of  breathing  pure 
air  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  The  scenery 
round  about  was  very  attractive.  Exercise  was  a  source 
of  health  to  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body.  As  it  was 
necessary  that  I  should  reside  as  near  as  possible  to  the 
works,  I  had  plenty  of  opportunities  for  enjoying  the  rural 
scenery  of  the  neighborhood.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to 
become  the  tenant  of  a  small  cottage  in  the  ancient  village 


25O  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

of  Barton,  in  Cheshire,  at  the  very  moderate  rental  of  fif- 
teen pounds  a  year.  The  cottage  was  situated  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Irwell,  and  was  only  about  six  minutes' 
walk  from  the  works  at  Patricroft.  It  suited  my  moderate 
domestic  arrangements  admirably. 

On  June  16,  1840,  a  day  of  happy  memory,  I  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Anne  Hartop. 

I  was  present  at  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway,  on  Sept.  15,  1830.  Every  one  knows 
the  success  of  the  undertaking.  Railways  became  the 
rage.  They  were  projected  in  every  possible  direction ; 
and  when  made,  locomotives  were  required  to  work  them. 
When  George  Stephenson  was  engaged  in  building  his 
first  locomotive,  at  Killingworth,  he  was  greatly  hampered, 
not  only  by  the  want  of  handy  mechanics,  but  by  the  want 
of  efficient  tools.  But  he  did  the  best  that  he  could. 
His  genius  overcame  difficulties.  It  was  immensely  to  his 
credit  that  he  should  have  so  successfully  completed  his 
engines  for  the  Stockton  and  Darlington,  and  afterward 
for  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  Railway. 

Only  a  few  years  had  passed,  and  self-acting  tools  were 
now  enabled  to  complete,  with  precision  and  uniformity, 
machines  that  before  had  been  deemed  almost  impracti- 
cable. In  proportion  to  the  rapid  extension  of  railways 
the  demand  for  locomotives  became  very  great.  As  our 
machine  tools  were  peculiarly  adapted  for  turning  out  a 
large  amount  of  first-class  work,  we  directed  our  attention 
to  this  class  of  business.  In  the  course  of  about  ten  years 
after  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Rail- 
way, we  executed  considerable  orders  for  locomotives  for 
the  London  and  Southampton,  the  Manchester  and  Leeds, 
and  the  Gloucester  Railway  Companies. 

The  Great  Western   Railway  Company  invited  us   to 


STEAM-HAMMER.  2 5  I 

tender  for  twenty  of  their  very  ponderous  engines.  They 
proposed  a  very  tempting  condition  of  the  contract.  It 
was  that  if,  after  a  month's  trial  of  the  locomotives,  their 
working  proved  satisfactory,  a  premium  of  ,£100  was  to 
be  added  to  the  price  of  each  engine  and  tender.  The 
locomotives  were  made  and  delivered  ;  they  ran  the  stipu- 
lated number  of  test  miles  between  London  and  Bristol  in 
a  perfectly  satisfactory  manner ;  and  we  not  only  received 
the  premium,  but,  what  was  much  more  encouraging,  we 
received  a  special  letter  from  the  board  of  directors,  stating 
their  entire  satisfaction  with  the  performance  of  our  en- 
gines, and  desiring  us  to  refer  other  contractors  to  them 
with  respect  to  the  excellence  of  our  workmanship.  This 
testimonial  was  altogether  spontaneous,  and  proved  ex- 
tremely valuable  in  other  quarters. 

The  date  of  the  first  sketch  of  my  steam-hammer  was 
Nov.  24,  1839.  It  consisted  of,  first,  a  massive  anvil,  on 
which  to  rest  the  work ;  second,  a  block  of  iron  consti- 
tuting the  hammer,  or  blow-giving  portion  ;  and,  third,  an 
inverted  steam  cylinder,  to  whose  piston-rod  the  hammer- 
block  was  attached.  All  that  was  then  required  to  pro- 
duce a  most  effective  hammer,  was  simply  to  admit  steam 
of  sufficient  pressure  into  the  cylinder,  so  as  to  act  on  the 
under  side  of  the  piston,  and  thus  to  raise  the  hammer- 
block  attached  to  the  end  of  the  piston-rod.  By  a  very 
simple  arrangement  of  a  slide-valve  under  the  control  of 
an  attendant,  the  steam  was  allowed  to  escape,  and  thus 
permit  the  massive  block  of  iron  rapidly  to  descend  by  its 
own  gravity  upon  the  work  then  upon  the  anvil. 

Thus,  by  the  more  or  less  rapid  manner  in  which  the 
attendant  allowed  the  steam  to  enter  or  escape  from  the 
cylinder,  any  required  number  or  any  intensity  of  blows 
could  be  delivered.  Their  succession  might  be  modified 


252  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

in  an  instant;  the  hammer  might  be  arrested  and  sus- 
pended according  to  the  requirements  of  the  work.  The 
workman  might  thus,  as  it  were,  think  in  blows.  He 
might  deal  them  out  on  to  the  ponderous  glowing  mass, 
and  mould  or  knead  it  into  the  desired  form  as  if  it  were 
a  lump  of  clay,  or  pat  it  with  gentle  taps,  according  to  his 
will  or  at  the  desire  of  the  forgeman. 

Rude  and  rapidly  sketched  out  as  it  was,  this  my  first 
delineation  of  the  steam-hammer  will  be  found  to  com- 
prise all  the  essential  elements  of  the  invention.  There 
was  no  want  of  orders  when  the  valuable  qualities  of  the 
steam-hammer  came  to  be  seen  and  experienced ;  soon 
after  I  had  the  opportunity  of  securing  a  patent  for  it  in 
the  United  States,  where  it  soon  found  its  way  into  the 
principal  iron-works  of  the  country.  As  time  passed  by, 
I  had  furnished  steam-hammers  to  the  principal  foundries 
in  England,  and  had  sent  them  abroad  even  to  Russia. 


But  the  English  Government  is  proverbially  slow  in  rec- 
ognizing such  improvements.  It  was  not  till  years  had 
passed  by,  that  Mr.  Nasmyth  was  asked  to  furnish  ham- 
mers to  government  works.  Then  he  was  invited  to  apply 
them  to  pile-driving.  He  says  :  — 

My  first  order  for  my  pile-driver  was  a  source  of  great 
pleasure  to  me.  It  was  for  the  construction  of  some  great 
royal  docks  at  Devonport.  An  immense  portion  of  the 
shore  of  the  Hamoaze  had  to  be  walled  in  so  as  to  exclude 
the  tide. 

When  I  arrived  on  the  spot  with  my  steam  pile-driver, 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  curiosity  in  the  dockyard  as  to 
the  action  of  the  new  machine.  The  pile-driving  machine- 


PILE-DRIVER.  253 

men  gave  me  a  good-natured  challenge  to  vie  with  them 
in  driving  down  a  pile.  They  adopted  the  old  method, 
while  I  adopted  the  new  one.  The  resident  managers 
sought  out  two  great  pile  logs  of  equal  size  and  length,  — 
seventy  feet  long  and  eighteen  inches  square.  At  a  given 
signal  we  started  together.  I  let  in  the  steam,  and  the 
hammer  at  once  began  to  work.  The  four-ton  block 
showered  down  blows  at  the  rate  of  eighty  a  minute,  and 
in  the  course  of  four  and  a  half  minutes  my  pile  was 
driven  down  to  its  required  depth.  The  men  working  at 
the  ordinary  machine  had  only  begun  to  drive.  It  took 
them  upward  of  twelve  hours  to  complete  the  driving  of 
their  pile  ! 

Such  a  saving  of  time  in  the  performance  of  similar 
work  —  by  steam  versus  manual  labor  —  had  never  before 
been  witnessed.  The  energetic  action  of  the  steam-ham- 
mer, sitting  on  the  shoulders  of  the  pile  high  up  aloft,  and 
following  it  suddenly  down,  the  rapidly  hammered  blows 
keeping  time  with  the  flashing  out  of  the  waste  steam  at 
the  end  of  each  stroke,  was  indeed  a  remarkable  sight 
When  my  pile  was  driven  the  hammer-block  and  guide- 
case  were  speedily  re-hoisted  by  the  small  engine  that  did 
all  the  laboring  and  locomotive  work  of  the  machine,  the 
steam-hammer  portion  of  which  was  then  lowered  on  to 
the  shoulders  of  the  next  pile  in  succession.  Again  it  set 
to  work.  At  this  the  spectators,  crowding  about  in  boats, 
pronounced  their  approval  in  the  usual  British  style  of 
"  Three  cheers  !  "  My  new  pile-driver  was  thus  acknowl- 
edged as  another  triumphant  proof  of  the  power  of  steam. 


In  the  course  of  the  year  1843  it  was  necessary  for  me 
to  make  a  journey  to  St.  Petersburg.     My  object  was  to 


254  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

endeavor  to  obtain  an  order  for  a  portion  of  the  locomo- 
tives required  for  working  the  line  between  that  city  and 
Moscow.  The  railway  had  been  constructed  under  the 
engineership  of  Major  Whistler,  and  it  was  shortly  about 
to  be  opened. 

The  Major  gave  me  a  frank  and  cordial  reception,  and 
informed  me  of  the  position  of  affairs.  The  Emperor,  he 
said,  was  desirous  of  training  a  class  of  Russian  mechanics 
to  supply  not  only  the  locomotives,  but  to  keep  them 
constantly  in  repair.  The  locomotives  must  be  made  in 
Russia.  I  received,  however,  a  very  large  order  for 
boilers  and  other  detail  parts  of  the  Moscow  machines. 

I  enjoyed  greatly  my  visit  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  my 
return  home  through  Stockholm  and  Copenhagen. 

Travelling  one  day  in  Sweden,  the  post-house  where  I  was 
set  down  was  an  inn,  although  without  a  sign-board.  The 
landlady  was  a  bright,  cheery,  jolly  woman.  She  could  not 
speak  a  word  of  English,  nor  I  a  word  of  Dannemora  Swed- 
ish. I  was  very  thirsty  and  hungry,  and  wanted  something 
to  eat.  How  was  I  to  communicate  my  wishes  to  the  land- 
lady ?  I  resorted,  as  I  often  did,  to  the  universal  language 
of  the  pencil.  I  took  out  my  sketch-book,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  I  made  a  drawing  of  a  table  with  a  dish  of  smok- 
ing meat  upon  it,  a  bottle  and  a  glass,  a  knife  and  fork,  a 
loaf,  a  salt-cellar,  and  a  corkscrew.  She  looked  at  the 
drawing  and  gave  a  hearty  laugh.  She  nodded  pleasantly, 
showing  that  she  clearly  understood  what  I  wanted.  She 
asked  me  for  the  sketch,  and  went  into  the  back  garden 
to  show  it  to  her  husband,  who  inspected  it  with  great 
delight.  I  went  out  and  looked  about  the  place,  which 
was  very  picturesque.  After  a  short  time  the  landlady 
came  to  the  door  and  beckoned  me  in,  and  I  found  spread 
out  on  the  table  everything  that  I  desired,  —  a  broiled 


ASTRONOMY.  2$$ 

chicken,  smoking  hot  from  the  gridiron,  a  bottle  of  capital 
home-brewed  ale,  and  all  the  et  ceteras  of  an  excellent 
repast.  I  made  use  of  my  pencil  in  many  other  ways. 
I  always  found  that  a  sketch  was  as  useful  as  a  sentence. 
Besides,  it  generally  created  a  sympathy  between  me  and 
my  entertainers. 

As  the  Bridgewater  Foundry  had  been  so  fortunate  as 
to  earn  for  itself  a  considerable  reputation  for  mechanical 
contrivances,  the  workshops  were  always  busy.  They 
were  crowded  with  machine  tools  in  full  action,  and  exhib- 
ited to  all  comers  their  effectiveness  in  the  most  satisfac- 
tory manner.  Every  facility  was  afforded  to  those  who 
desired  to  see  them  at  work;  and  every  machine  and 
machine  tool  that  was  turned  out  became  in  the  hands 
of  its  employers  the  progenitor  of  a  numerous  family. 

Indeed,  on  many  occasions  I  had  the  gratification  of 
seeing  my  mechanical  notions  adopted  by  rival  or  com- 
petitive machine  constructors,  often  without  acknowledg- 
ment ;  though,  notwithstanding  this  point  of  honor,  there 
was  room  enough  for  all.  Though  the  parent  features 
were  easily  recognizable,  I  esteemed  such  plagiarisms  as  a 
sort  of  left-handed  compliment  to  their  author.  I  also 
regarded  them  as  a  proof  that  I  had  hit  the  mark  in  so 
arranging  my  mechanical  combinations  as  to  cause  their 
general  adoption  ;  and  many  of  them  remain  unaltered  to 
this  day. 

My  favorite  pursuit,  after  my  daily  excursions  at  the 
foundry,  was  astronomy.  I  constructed  for  myself  a  tele- 
scope of  considerable  power,  and,  mounting  my  ten-inch 
instrument,  I  began  my  survey  of  the  heavens.  I  be- 
gan as  a  learner,  and  my  learning  grew  with  experience. 
There  were  the  prominent  stars,  the  planets,  the  Milky 
Way,  —  with  thousands  of  far-off  suns,  —  to  be  seen.  My 


256  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

observations  were  at  first  merely  general ;  by  degrees  they 
became  particular.  I  was  not  satisfied  with  enjoying  these 
sights  myself.  I  made  my  friends  and  neighbors  sharers 
in  my  pleasure,  and  some  of  them  enjoyed  the  wonders  of 
the  heavens  as  much  as  I  did. 

In  my  early  use  of  the  telescope  I  had  fitted  the  specu- 
lum into  a  light  square  tube  of  deal,  to  which  the  eyepiece 
was  attached,  so  as  to  have  all  the  essential  parts  of  the 
telescope  combined,  together  in  the  most  simple  and  port- 
able form.  I  had  often  to  move  it  from  place  to  place  in  my 
small  garden  at  the  side  of  the  Bridgewater  Canal,  in  order 
to  get  it  clear  of  the  trees  and  branches  which  intercepted 
some  object  in  the  heavens  which  I  wished  to  see.  How 
eager  and  enthusiastic  I  was  in  those  days  !  Sometimes  I 
got  out  of  bed  in  the  clear  small  hours  of  the  morning, 
and  went  down  to  the  garden  in  my  night-shirt.  I  would 
take  the  telescope  in  my  arms  and  plant  it  in  some  suit- 
able spot,  where  I  might  take  a  peep  at  some  special  planet 
or  star  then  above  the  horizon. 

It  became  bruited  about  that  a  ghost  was  seen  at  Patri- 
croft !  A  barge  was  silently  gliding  along  the  canal  near 
midnight,  when  the  boatman  suddenly  saw  a  figure  in  white. 
"  It  moved  among  the  trees,  with  a  coffin  in  its  arms  !  " 
The  apparition  was  so  sudden  and  strange  that  he  imme- 
diately concluded  that  it  was  a  ghost.  The  weird  sight 
was  reported  all  along  the  canal,  and  also  at  Wolverhamp- 
ton,  which  was  the  boatman's  headquarters.  He  told  the 
people  at  Patricroft,  on  his  return  journey,  what  he  had 
seen  ;  and  great  was  the  excitement  produced.  The  place 
was  haunted ;  there  was  no  doubt  about  it !  After  all,  the 
rumor  was  founded  on  fact;  for  the  ghost  was  merely 
myself  in  my  night-shirt,  and  the  coffin  was  my  telescope, 
which  I  was  quietly  shifting  from  one  place  to  another, 


HAMMER  FIELD. 


in  order  to  get  a  clearer  sight  of  the  heavens  at  mid- 
night. 

I  had  been  for  some  time  contemplating  the  possibility 
of  retiring  altogether  from  business.  I  had  got  enough  of 
the  world's  goods,  and  was  willing  to  make  way  for  younger 
men. 

Many  long  years  of  pleasant  toil  and  exertion  had  done 
their  work.  A  full  momentum  of  prosperity  had'  been 
given  to  my  engineering  business  at  Patricroft.  My  share 
in  the  financial  results  accumulated,  with  accelerated  ra- 
pidity, to  an  amount  far  beyond  my  most  sanguine  hopes. 
But  finding,  from  long-continued  and  incessant  mental 
efforts,  that  my  nervous  system  was  beginning  to  become 
shaken,  especially  in  regard  to  an  affection  of  the  eyes, 
which  in  some  respects  damaged  my  sight,  I  thought  the 
time  had  arrived  for  me  to  retire  from  commercial  life. 

Behold  us,  then,  settled  down  at  Hammerfield  for  life. 
We  had  plenty  to  do.  My  workshop  was  fully  equipped. 
My  hobbies  were  there,  and  I  could  work  them  to  my 
heart's  content.  The  walls  of  our  various  rooms  were 
soon  hung  with  pictures  and  other  works  of  art,  suggestive 
of  many  pleasant  associations  of  former  days.  Our  library 
bookcase  was  crowded  with  old  friends  in  the  shape  of 
books  that  had  been  read  and  re-read  many  times,  until 
they  had  almost  become  part  of  ourselves.  Old  Lan- 
cashire friends  made  their  way  to  us  when  "  up  in  town," 
and  expressed  themselves  delighted  with  our  pleasant 
house  and  its  beautiful  surroundings. 

I  was  only  forty-eight  years  old,  which  may  be  consid- 
ered the  prime  of  life.  But  I  had  plenty  of  hobbies,  per- 
haps the  chief  of  which  was  astronomy.  No  sooner  had  I 
settled  at  Hammerfield  than  I  had  my  telescopes  brought 
out  and  mounted.  The  fine,  clear  skies  with  which  we 
.17 


258  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

were  favored  furnished  me  with  abundant  opportunities 
for  the  use  of  my  instruments.  I  began  again  my  investi- 
gations on  the  sun  and  the  moon,  and  made  some  original 
discoveries. 

It  is  time  to  come  to  an  end  of  my  recollections.  I 
have  endeavored  to  give  a  brief  resume  of  my  life  and 
labors.  I  hope  they  may  prove  interesting  as  well  as 
useful  to  others.  Thanks  to  a  good  constitution  and  a 
frame  invigorated  by  work,  I  continue  to  lead,  with  my 
dear  wife,  a  happy  life. 


XIII. 

SIR   HENRY  BESSEMER. 
THE  AGE  OF  STEEL. 

T  N  intervals  of  the  reading  meetings  so  many  of  the 
•^  children's  afternoons  with  Uncle  Fritz  had  been 
taken  up  with  excursions  to  see  machinery  at  work,  that 
their  next  meeting  at  the  Oliver  House  was,  as  it  proved, 
the  last  for  the  winter. 

They  had  gone  to  the  pumping-station  of  the  water- 
works, and  had  seen  the  noiseless  work  of  the  great  steam- 
engine  there.  They  had  gone  to  the  ^Etna  Mills  at 
Watertown,  and  with  the  eye  of  the  flesh  had  seen  "  rovers  " 
and  shuttles,  and  had  been  taught  what  "  slobbers  "  are. 
They  had  gone  to  Waltham,  and  had  been  taught  some- 
thing of  the  marvellous  skill  and  delicacy  expended  on  the 
manufacture  of  watches.  They  had  gone  to  Rand  and 
Avery's  printing-house ;  and  here  they  not  only  saw  the 
processes  of  printing,  but  they  saw  steam  power  "con- 
verted "  into  electricity.  They  had  gone  to  the  Loco- 
motive Factory  in  Albany  Street,  and  understood,  much 
better  than  before,  the  inventions  of  George  Stephenson, 
under  the  lead  of  the  foremen  in  the  shops,  who  had 
been  very  kind  to  them. 

On  their  last  meeting  Uncle  Fritz  reminded  them  of 
something  which  one  of  these  gentlemen  had  taught 


260  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

them  about  the  qualities  of  steel  and  iron ;  and  again  of 
what  they  had  seen  of  steel-springs  at  Waltham,  when 
they  saw  how  the  balances  of  watches  are  arranged. 

"  Some  bright  person  has  called  our  time  '  the  Age  of 
Steel/  "  he  said.  "  You  know  Ovid's  division  was  '  the 
Age  of  Gold,  the  Age  of  Silver,  the  Age  of  Brass,  the  Age 
of  Iron.'  And  Ovid,  who  was  in  low  spirits,  thought  the 
Age  of  Iron  was  the  worst  of  all.  Now,  we  begin  to  im- 
prove if  we  have  entered  the  Age  of  Steel ;  for  steel  is, 
poetically  speaking,  glorified  iron. 

"  Now  the  person  to  whom  we  owe  it,  that,  in  practice, 
we  can  build  steel  ships  to-day  where  we  once  built  iron 
ships,  and  lay  steel  rails  to-day  where  even  Stephenson 
was  satisfied  with  iron,  is  Sir  Henry  Bessemer.  The 
Queen  knighted  him  in  recognition  of  the  service  he  had 
rendered  to  the  world  by  his  improvements  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  turning  iron  into  steel. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  addition  which  these 
improvements  have  made  to  the  physical  power  of  the 
world.  I  have  not  the  most  recent  figures,  but  look  at 
this,"  said  Uncle  Fritz.  And  he  gave  to  John  to  read 
from  a  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  :  - 

"  Prior  to  this  invention  the  entire  production  of  cast 
steel  in  Great  Britain  was  only  about  fifty  thousand  tons 
annually;  and  its  average  price,  which  ranged  from  ^50 
to  ^600,  prohibited  its  use  for  many  of  the  purposes  to 
which  it  is  now  universally  applied.  After  the  invention, 
in  the  year  1877,  the  Bessemer  steel  produced  in  Great 
Britain  alone  amounted  to  750,000  tons,  or  fifteen  times 
the  total  of  the  former  method  of  manufacture,  while  the 
selling  price  averaged  only  ^10  per  ton,  and  the  coal 
consumed  in  producing  it  was  less  by  3,500,000  tons  than 
would  have  been  required  in  order  to  make  the  same 


BESSEMER* S  FAMILY.  26 1 

quality  of  steel  by  the  old,  or  Sheffield,  process.  The  total 
reduction  of  cost  is  equal  to  about  ^30,000,000  sterling 
upon  the  quantity  manufactured  in  England  during  the 
year." 

The  same  book  goes  on  to  show  that  in  other  nations 
^"20,000,000  worth  of  Bessemer  steel  was  produced  in 
the  same  year. 

"You  see,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  "that  here  is  an  addition 
to  the  real  wealth  of  the  world  such  as  ma|j£s  any  average 
fairy  story  about  diamonds  and  rubies  rather  cheap  and 
contemptible. 

"  You  will  like  Sir  Henry  Bessemer,  Hester,  because  he 
was  happily  trained  and  had  good  chances  when  he  was 
a  boy.  And  you  will  be  amused  to  see  how  his  bright 
wife  was  brighter  than  all  the  internal-revenue  people. 
She  was  so  bright  that  she  lost  him  the  appointment 
which  had  enabled  him  to  marry  her.  But  I  think  he 
says  somewhere,  with  a  good  deal  of  pride,  that  but  for 
that  misfortune,  and  the  injustice  which  accompanied  it, 
he  should  have  probably  never  made  his  great  inven- 
tions. It  is  one  more  piece  of  '  Partial  evil,  —  universal 
good.'  " 

Then  the  children,  with  Uncle  Fritz's  aid,  began  picking 
out  what  they  called  the  plums  from  the  accounts  he 
showed  them  of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer's  life. 


BESSEMER'S    FAMILY. 

At  the  time  of  the  great  Revolution  of  1792  there  was 
employed  in  the  French  mint  a  man  of  great  ingenuity, 
who  had  become  a  member  of  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  When  Robespierre 


262  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

became  Dictator  of  France,  this  scientific  academician  was 
transferred  from  the  mint  to  the  management  of  a  public 
bakery,  established  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  popu- 
lace of  Paris  with  bread.  In  that  position  he  soon  became 
the  object  of  revolutionary  frenzy.  One  day  a  rumor  was 
set  afloat  that  the  loaves  supplied  were  light  in  weight ; 
and,  spreading  like  wildfire,  it  was  made  the  occasion  of  a 
fearful  tumult.  The  manager  of  the  bakery  was  instantly 
seized  and  caj  into  prison.  He  succeeded  in  escaping, 
but  it  was  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  Knowing  the  peril  he 
was  in,  he  lost  no  time  in  making  his  way  to  England ; 
and  he  only  succeeded  in  doing  so  by  adroitly  using  some 
documents  he  possessed  bearing  the  signature  of  the  Dic- 
tator. Landing  in  England  a  ruined  man,  his  talents  soon 
proved  a  passport  to  success.  He  was  appointed  to  a 
position  in  the  English  mint ;  and  by  the  exercise  of  his 
ingenuity  in  other  directions,  he  ere  long  acquired  suffi- 
cient means  to  buy  a  small  estate  at  Charlton,  in  Hert- 
fordshire. Such,  in  brief,  were  the  circumstances  that  led 
to  the  settlement  there  of  Anthony  Bessemer,  the  father 
of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer.  The  latter  may  be  said  to  have 
been  born  an  inventor.  His  father  was  an  inventor  before 
him.  After  settling  in  England,  his  inventive  ingenuity 
was  displayed  in  making  improvements  in  microscopes 
and  in  type-founding,  and  in  the  discovery  of  what  his 
son  has  happily  described  as  the  true  alchemy.  The 
latter  discovery,  which  he  made  about  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  was  a  source  of  considerable  profit  to 
him.  It  is  generally  known  that  when  gold  articles  are 
made  by  the  jewellers,  there  are  various  discolorations  left 
on  their  surface  by  the  process  of  manufacture ;  and  in 
order  to  clear  their  surface,  they  are  put  into  a  solution 
of  alum,  salt,  and  saltpetre,  which  dissolves  a  large  quantity 


TYPif-METAL.  263 

of  the  copper  that  is  used  as  an  alloy.  Anthony  Bessemer 
discovered  that  this  powerful  acid  not  only  dissolved  the 
copper,  but  also  dissolved  a  quantity  of  gold.  He  accord- 
ingly began  to  buy  up  this  liquor ;  and  as  he  was  the  only 
one  who  knew  that  it  contained  gold  in  solution,  he  had 
no  difficulty  in  arranging  for  the  purchase  of  it  from  all 
the  manufacturers  in  London.  From  that  liquor  he  suc- 
ceeded in  extracting  gold  in  considerable  quantities  for 
many  years.  By  some  means  that  he  kept  secret  (and 
the  secret  died  with  him) ,  he  deposited  the  particles  of 
gold  on  the  shavings  of  another  metal,  which,  being  after- 
wards melted,  left  the  pure  gold  in  small  quantities. 
Thirty  years  afterward  the  Messrs.  Elkington  invented  the 
electrotype  process,  which  had  the  same  effect.  Anthony 
Bessemer  was  also  eminently  successful  as  a  type-founder. 
When  in  France,  before  the  Revolution  of  1792,  he  cut  a 
great  many  founts  of  type  for  Messrs.  Firmin  Didot,  the 
celebrated  French  type-founders ;  and  after  his  return  to 
England  he  betook  himself,  as  a  diversion,  to  type-cutting 
for  Mr.  Henry  Caslon,  the  celebrated  English  type-founder. 
He  engraved  an  entire  series,  from  pica  to  diamond,  —  a 
work  which  occupied  several  years.  The  success  of  these 
types  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  firm  of  Bessemer 
and  Catherwood  as  type-founders,  carrying  on  business  at 
Charlton.  The  great  improvement  which  Anthony  Besse- 
mer introduced  into  the  art  of  type-making  was  not  so 
much  in  the  engraving  as  in  the  composition  of  the  metal. 
He  discovered  that  an  alloy  of  copper,  tin,  and  bismuth 
was  the  most  durable  metal  for  type  ;  and  the  working  of 
this  discovery  was  very  successful  in  his  hands.  The 
secret  of  his  success,  however,  he  kept  unknown  to  the 
trade.  He  knew  that  if  it  were  suspected  that  the  supe- 
riority of  his  type  consisted  in  the  composition  of  the 


264  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

metal,  analysis  would  reveal  it,  and  others  would  then  be 
able  to  compete  with  him.  So,  to  divert  attention  from 
the  real  cause,  he  pointed  out  to  the  trade  that  the  shape 
of  his  type  was  different,  as  the  angle  at  which  all  the 
lines  were  produced  from  the  surface  was  more  obtuse  in 
his  type  than  in  those  of  other  manufacturers,  at  the  same 
time  contending  that  his  type  would  wear  longer.  Other 
manufacturers  ridiculed  this  account  of  Bessemer's  type, 
but  experience  showed  that  it  lasted  nearly  twice  as  long 
as  other  type.  The  business  flourished  for  a  dozen  years 
under  his  direction,  and  during  that  period  the  real  cause 
of  its  success  was  kept  a  secret.  The  process  has  since 
been  re-discovered  and  patented.  Such  were  some  of  the 
inventive  efforts  of  the  father  of  one  of  the  greatest  inven- 
tors of  the  present  age. 


HENRY   BESSEMER. 

The  youngest  son  of  Anthony  Bessemer,  Henry,  was 
born  at  Charlton,  in  Hertfordshire,  in  1813.  His  boy- 
hood was  spent  in  his  native  village  ;  and  while  receiving 
the  rudiments  of  an  ordinary  education  in  the  neighboring 
town  of  Hitchin,  the  leisure  and  retirement  of  rural  life 
afforded  ample  time,  though  perhaps  little  inducement, 
for  the  display  of  the  natural  bent  of  his  mind.  Notwith- 
standing his  scanty  and  imperfect  mechanical  appliances, 
his  early  years  were  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  his 
inventive  faculties.  His  parents  encouraged  him  in  his 
youthful  efforts. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  came  to  London,  "  knowing 
no  one,"  he  says,  "and  myself  unknown,  — a  mere  cipher 
in  a  vast  sea  of  human  enterprise."  Here  he  worked  as 


STAMPED  PAPER.  26$ 

a  modeller  and  designer  with  encouraging  success.  He 
engraved  a  large  number  of  elegant  and  original  designs 
on  steel,  with  a  diamond  point,  for  patent-medicine  labels. 
He  got  plenty  of  this  sort  of  work  to  do,  and  was  well 
paid  for  it.  In  his  boyhood  his  favorite  amusement  was 
the  modelling  of  objects  in  clay ;  and  even  in  this  primi- 
tive school  of  genius  he  worked  with  so  much  success 
that  at  the  age  of  nineteen  he  exhibited  one  of  his  beauti- 
ful models  at  the  Royal  Academy,  then  held  at  Somerset 
House. 

STAMPED   PAPER.  * 

Thus  he  soon  began  to  make  his  way  in  the  metropo- 
lis ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  following  year  he  was  matur- 
ing some  plans  in  connection  with  the  production  of 
stamps  which  he  sanguinely  hoped  would  lead  him  on  to 
fortune.  At  that  time  the  old  forms  of  stamps  were  in 
use  that  had  been  employed  since  the  days  of  Queen 
Anne  ;  and  as  they  were  easily  transferred  from  old  deeds 
to  new  ones,  the  Government  lost  a  large  amount  annually 
by  this  surreptitious  use  of  old  stamps  instead  of  new 
ones.  The  ordinary  impressed  or  embossed  stamps,  such 
as  are  now  employed  on  bills  of  exchange,  or  impressed 
directly  on  skins  or  parchment,  were  liable  to  be  entirely 
obliterated  if  exposed  for  some  months  to  a  damp  atmos- 
phere. A  deed  so  exposed  would  at  last  appear  as  if 
unstamped,  and  would  therefore  become  invalid.  Special 
precautions  were  therefore  observed  in  order  to  prevent 
this  occurrence.  It  was  the  practice  to  gum  small  pieces  of 
blue  paper  on  the  parchment ;  and,  to  render  it  still  more 
secure,  a  strip  of  metal  foil  was  passed  through  it,  and 
another  small  piece  of  paper  with  the  printed  initials  of 


266  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

the  sovereign  was  gummed  over  the  loose  end  of  the  foil  at 
the  back.  The  stamp  was  then  impressed  on  the  blue 
paper,  which,  unlike  parchment,  is  incapable  of  losing  the 
impression  By  exposure  to  a  damp  atmosphere.  Expe- 
rience showed,  however,  that  by  placing  a  little  piece  of 
moistened  blotting-paper  for  a  few  hours  over  the  paper, 
the  gum  became  so  softened  that  the  two  pieces  of  paper 
and  the  slip  of  foil  could  be  easily  removed  from  an  old 
deed  and  then  used  for  a  new  one.  In  this  way  stamps 
could  be  used  a  second  and  third  time ;  and  by  thus  utiliz- 
ing the  expensive  stamps  on  old  deeds  of  partnerships  that 
were  dissolved,  or  leases  that  were  expired,  the  public 
revenue  lost  thousands  of  pounds  every  year.  Sir  Charles 
Persley,  of  the  Stamp  Office,  told  Sir  Henry  Bessemer 
that  the  Government  were  probably  defrauded  of  ;£i 00,000 
per  annum  in  that  way.  The  young  inventor  at  once  set 
to  work,  for  the  express  purpose  of  devising  a  stamp  that 
could  not  be  used  twice.  His  first  discovery  was  a  mode 
by  which  he  could  have  reproduced  easily  and  cheaply 
thousands  of  stamps  of  any  pattern.  "The  facility,"  he 
says,  "  with  which  I  could  make  a  permanent  die  from  a 
thin  paper  original,  capable  of  producing  a  thousand 
copies,  would  have  opened  a  wide  door  for  successful 
frauds  if  my  process  had  been  known  to  unscrupulous 
persons ;  for  there  is  not  a  government  stamp  or  a  paper 
seal  of  a  corporate  body  that  every  common  office  clerk 
could  not  forge  in  a  few  minutes  at  the  office  of  his 
employer  or  at  his  own  home.  The  production  of  such 
a  die  from  a  common  paper  stamp  is  a  work  of  only 
ten  minutes  j  the  materials  cost  less  than  one  penny ;  no 
sort  of  technical  skill  is  necessary,  and  a  common  copying- 
press  or  a  letter  stamp  yields  most  successful  copies." 
To  this  day  a  successful  forger  has  to  employ  a  skilful 


A   NEW  PLAN.  267 

die-sinker  to  make  a  good  imitation  in  steel  of  the  docu- 
ment he  wishes  to  forge ;  but  if  such  a  method  as  that 
discovered  and  described  by  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  were 
known,  what  a  prospect  it  would  open  up  !  Appalled  at 
the  effect  which  the  communication  of  such  a  process 
would  have  had  upon  the  business  of  the  Stamp  Office, 
he  carefully  kept  the  knowledge  of  it  to  himself;  and  to 
this  day  it  remains  a  profound  secret. 

More  than  ever  impressed  with  the  necessity  for  an 
improved  form  of  stamp,  and  conscious  of  his  own  capa- 
bility to  produce  it,  he  labored  for  some  months  to 
accomplish  his  object,  feeling  sure  that,  if  successful, 
he  would  be  amply  rewarded  by  the  Government.  To 
insure  the  secrecy  of  his  experiments,  he  worked  at  them 
during  the  night,  after  his  ordinary  business  of  the 
day  was  over.  He  succeeded  at  last  in  making  a  stamp 
which  obviated  the  great  objection  to  the  then  exist- 
ing form,  inasmuch  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  trans- 
fer it  from  one  deed  to  another,  to  obliterate  it  by 
moisture,  or  to  take  an  impression  from  it  capable  of 
producing  a  duplicate.  Flushed  with  success  and  confi- 
dent of  the  reward  of  his  labors,  he  waited  upon  Sir 
Charles  Persley  at  Somerset  House,  and  showed  him,  by 
numerous  proofs,  how  easily  all  the  then  existing  stamps 
could  be  forged,  and  his  new  invention  to  prevent  forgery. 
Sir  Charles,  who  was  much  astonished  at  the  one  inven- 
tion and  pleased  with  the  other,  asked  Bessemer  to  call 
again  in  a  few  days.  At  the  second  interview  Sir  Charles 
asked  him  to  work  out  the  principle  of  the  new  stamping 
invention  more  fully.  Accordingly  Bessemer  devoted  five 
or  six  weeks'  more  labor  to  the  perfecting  of  his  stamp, 
with  which  the  Stamp  Office  authorities  were  now  well 
pleased.  The  design,  as  described  by  the  inventor,  was 


268  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

circular,  about  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  and 
consisted  of  a  garter  with  a  motto  in  capital  letters, 
surmounted  by  a  crown.  Within  the  garter  was  a  shield, 
and  the  garter  was  filled  with  network  in  imitation  of 
lace.  The  die  was  executed  in  steel,  which  pierced  the 
parchment  with  more  than  four  hundred  holes ;  and  these 
holes  formed  the  stamp.  It  is  by  a  similar  process  that 
valentine  makers  have  since  learned  to  make  the  perfo- 
rated paper  used  in  their  trade.  Such  a  stamp  removed 
all  the  objections  to  the  old  one.  So  pleased  was  Sir 
Charles  with  it  that  he  recommended  it  to  Lord  Althorp, 
and  it  was  soon  adopted  by  the  Stamp  Office.  At  the 
same  time  Sir  Henry  was  asked  whether  he  would  be 
satisfied  with  the  position  of  Superintendent  of  Stamps 
with  ;£  500  or  £600  per  annum,  as  compensation  for 
his  invention,  instead  of  a  sum  of  money  from  the  treas- 
ury. This  appointment  he  gladly  agreed  to  accept ;  for, 
being  engaged  to  be  married  at  the  time,  he  thought  his 
future  position  in  life  was  settled.  Shdrtly  afterwards  he 
called  on  the  young  lady  to  whom  he  was  engaged,  and 
communicated  the  glad  tidings  to  her,  at  the  same  time 
showing  her  the  design  of  his  new  stamp.  On  explaining 
to  her  that  its  chief  virtue  was  that  the  new  stamps  thus 
produced  could  not,  like  the  old  ones,  be  fraudulently 
used  twice  or  thrice,  she  instantly  suggested  that  if  all 
stamps  had  a  date  put  upon  them  they  could  not  be  used 
at  a  future  time-  without  detection.  The  idea  was  new  to 
him  ;  and,  impressed  with  its  practical  character,  he  at  once 
conceived  a  plan  for  the  insertion  of  movable  dates  in  the 
die  of  his  stamp.  The  method  by  which  this  is  now  done 
is  too  well  known  to  require  description  here  ;  but  in 
1833  it  was  a  new  invention.  Having  worked  out  the 
details  of  a  stamp  with  movable  dates,  he  saw  that  it  was 


A   DISAPPOINTMENT.  269 

more  simple  and  more  easily  worked  than  his  elaborate 
die  for  perforating  stamps ; .  but  he  also  saw  that  if  he 
disclosed  his  latest  invention  it  might  interfere  with  his 
settled  prospects  in  connection  with  the  carrying  out  of 
his  first  one.  It  was  not  without  regret,  too,  that  he  saw 
the  results  of  many  months  of  toil  and  the  experiments 
of  many  lonely  nights  at  once  superseded ;  but  his  con- 
viction of  the  superiority  of  his  latest  design  was  so  strong, 
and  his  own  sense  of  honor  and  his  confidence  in  that  of 
the  Government  was  so  unsuspecting,  that  he  boldly  went 
and  placed  the  whole  matter  before  Sir  Charles  Persley. 
Of  course  the  new  design  was  preferred.  Sir  Charles  truly 
observed  that  with  this  new  plan  all  the  old  dies,  old 
presses,  and  old  workmen  could  be  employed.  Among 
the  other  advantages  it  presented  to  the  Government,  it 
did  not  fail  to  strike  Sir  Charles  that  no  Superintendent 
of  Stamps  would  now  be  necessary,  —  a  recommendation 
which  the  perforated  die  did  not  possess.  The  Stamp 
Office  therefore  abandoned  the  ingenuous  and  ingenious 
inventor.  The  old  stamps  were  called  in,  and  the  new 
ones  issued  in  a  few  weeks ;  the  revenue  from  stamps 
grew  enormously,  and  forged  or  feloniously  used  stamps 
are  now  almost  unheard  of.  The  Stamp  Office  reaped 
a  benefit  which  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  estimate  fully, 
while  Bessemer  did  not  receive  a  farthing.  Shortly  after 
the  new  stamp  was  adopted  by  Act  of  Parliament,  Lord 
Althorp  resigned,  and  his  successors  disclaimed  all  liability. 
When  the  disappointed  inventor  pressed  his  claim,  he  was 
met  by  all  sorts  of  half-promises  and  excuses,  which  ended 
in  nothing.  The  disappointment  was  all  the  more  galling 
because,  if  Bessemer  had  stuck  to  his  first-adopted  plan, 
his  services  would  have  been  indispensable  to  its  execu- 
tion;  and  it  was  therefore  through  his  putting  a  better 


2/0  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

and  more  easily  worked  plan  before  them  that  his  ser- 
vices were  coolly  ignored.  "  I  had  no  patent  to  fall  back 
upon,"  he  says,  in  describing  the  incident  afterward.  "  I 
could  not  go  to  law,  even  if  I  wished  to  do  so ;  for  I  was 
reminded,  when  pressing  for  mere  money  out  of  pocket, 
that  I  had  done  all  the  work  voluntarily  and  of  my  own 
accord.  Wearied  and  disgusted,  I  at  last  ceased  to  waste 
time  in  calling  at  the  Stamp  Office,  —  for  time  was  pre- 
cious to  me  in  those  days,  —  and  I  felt  that  nothing  but 
increased  exertions  could  make  up  for  the  loss  of  some 
nine  months  of  toil  and  expenditure.  Thus  sad  and  dis- 
pirited, and  with  a  burning  sense  of  injustice  overpower- 
ing all  other  feelings,  I  went  my  way  from  the  Stamp 
Office,  too  proud  to  ask  as  a  favor  that  which  was  indubi- 
tably my  right." 


GOLD   PAINT. 

Shortly  after  he  had  taken  out  his  first  patent  for  his 
improvement  in  type-founding,  his  attention  was  acciden- 
tally turned  to  the  manufacture  of  bronze  powder,  which 
is  used  in  gold-work,  japanning,  gold-printing,  and  similar 
operations.  While  engaged  in  ornamenting  a  vignette  in 
his  sister's  album,  he  had  to  purchase  a  small  quantity  of  this 
bronze,  and  was  struck  with  the  great  difference  between 
the  price  of  the  raw  material  and  that  of  the  manufactured 
article.  The  latter  sold  for  ii2s.  a  pound,  while  the  raw 
material  only  cost  \\d.  a  pound.  He  concluded  that  the 
difference  was  caused  by  the  process  of  manufacture, 
and  made  inquiries  with  the  view  of  learning  the  nature 
of  the  process.  He  found,  however,  that  this  manufac- 
ture was  hardly  known  in  England.  The  article  was 


BRONZE-MAKING.  2  7 1 

supplied  to  English  dealers  from  Nuremberg  and  other 
towns  in  Germany.  He  did  not  succeed,  therefore,  in 
finding  any  one  who  could  tell  him  how  it  was  produced. 
In  these  circumstances  he  determined  to  try  to  make  it 
himself,  and  worked  for  a  year  and  a  half  at  the  solution 
of  this  task.  Other  men  had  tried  it  and  failed,  and  he 
was  on  the  point  of  failing  too.  After  eighteen  months  of 
fruitless  labor  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  could  not 
make  it,  and  gave  it  up.  But  it  is  the  highest  attribute  of 
genius  to  succeed  where  others  fail,  and,  impelled  by  this 
instinct,  he  resumed  his  investigations  after  six  months' 
repose.  At  last  success  crowned '  his  efforts.  The  profits 
of  his  previous  inventions  now  supplied  him  with  funds 
sufficient  to  provide  the  mechanical  appliances  he  had 
designed. 

Knowing  very  little  of  the  patent  law,  and  considering 
it  so  insecure  that  the  safest  way  to  reap  the  full  benefit  of 
his  new  invention  was  to  keep  it  to  himself,  he  determined 
to  work  his  process  of  bronze-making  in  strict  secrecy ;  and 
every  precaution  was  therefore  adopted  for  this  purpose. 
He  first  put  up  a  small  apparatus  with  his  own  hands,  and 
worked  it  entirely  himself.  By  this  means  he  produced 
the  required  article  at  4.$-.  a  pound.  He  then  sent  out  a 
traveller  with  samples  of  it,  and  the  first  order  he  got  was 
at  8os.  a  pound.  Being  thus  fully  assured  of  success,  he 
communicated  his  plans  to  a  friend,  who  agreed  to  put 
;£  1 0,000  into  the  business,  as  a  sleeping  partner,  in  order 
to  work  the  new  manufacture  on  a  larger  scale.  The  entire 
working  of  the  concern  was  left  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Henry, 
who  accordingly  proceeded  to  enlarge  his  means  of  pro- 
duction. To  insure  secrecy,  he  md.de  plans  of  all  the 
machinery  required,  and  then  divided  them  into  sections. 
He  next  sent  these  sectional  drawings  to  different  engi- 


2/2  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

neering  works,  in  order  to  get  his  machinery  made  piece- 
meal in  different  parts  of  England.  This  done,  he  collected 
the  various  pieces,  and  fitted  them  up  himself,  —  a  work 
that  occupied  him  nine  months.  Finding  everything  at 
last  in  perfect  working  order,  he  engaged  four  or  five 
assistants  in  whom  he  had  confidence,  and  paid  them  very 
high  wages  on  condition  that  they  kept  everything  in  the 
strictest  secrecy.  Bronze  powder  was  now  produced  in 
large  quantities  by  means  of  five  self-acting  machines, 
which  not  only  superseded  hand  labor  entirely,  but  were 
capable  of  producing  as  much  daily  as  sixty  skilled 
operatives  could  do  by  the  old  hand  system. 

To  this  day  the  mechanical  means  by  which  his  famous 
gold  paint  is  produced  remains  a  secret.  The  machinery 
is  driven  by  a  steam-engine  in  an  adjoining  room ;  and 
into  the  room  where  the  automatic  machinery  is  at  work 
none  but  the  inventor  and  his  assistants  have  ever  entered. 
When  a  sufficient  quantity  of  work  is  done,  a  bell  is  rung 
to  give  notice  to  the  engine-man  to  stop  the  engine  ;  and  in 
this  way  the  machinery  has  been  in  constant  use  for  over 
forty  years  without  having  been  either  patented  or  pirated. 
Its  profit  was  as  great  as  its  success.  At  first  he  made 
1,000  per  cent  profit ;  and  though  there  are  other  pro- 
ducts that  now  compete  with  this  bronze,  it  still  yields 
300  per  cent  profit.  "  All  this  time,"  says  the  successful 
inventor  thirty  years  afterward,  "  I  have  been  afraid  to  im- 
prove the  machinery,  or  to  introduce  other  engineers  into 
the  works  to  improve  them.  Strange  to  say,  we  have  thus 
among  us  a  manufacture  wholly  unimproved  for  thirty 
years.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  another  instance  of  such 
a  thing  in  the  kingdom.  I  believe  that  if  I  had  patented 
it,  the  fourteen  years  would  not  have  run  out  without  other 
people  making  improvements  in  the  manufacture.  Of  the 


BESSEMER  STEEL,  2/3 

five  machines  I  use,  three  are  applicable  to  other  processes, 
one  to  color-making  especially ;  so  much  so  that  notwith- 
standing the  very  excellent  income  which  I  derive  from 
the  manufacture,  I  had  once  nearly  made  up  my  mind  to 
throw  it  open  and  make  it  public,  for  the  purpose  of  using 
part  of  my  invention  for  the  manufacture  of  colors.  Three 
out  of  my  five  assistants  have  died ;  and  if  the  other  two 
were  to  die  and  myself  too,  no  one  would  know  what  the 
invention  is."  Since  this  was  said  (in  1871),  Sir  Henry 
has  rewarded  the  faithfulness  of  his  two  surviving  assistants 
by  handing  over  to  them  the  business  and  the  factory. 


BESSEMER   STEEL. 

Sir  Henry  Bessemer  was  first  led  to  turn  his  attention 
to  the  improvement  of  the  manufacture  of  iron  by  a  re- 
mark of  Commander  Minie,  who  was  superintending  cer- 
tain trials  of  the  results  of  Sir  Henry's  experiments  in 
obtaining  rotation  of  shot  fired  from  a  smooth-bore  gun. 
"The  shots,"  said  Minie,  "rotate  properly;  but  if  you 
cannot  get  stronger  metal  for  your  guns,  such  heavy  pro- 
jectiles will  be  of  little  use." 

At  this  time  Sir  Henry  had  no  connection  with  the  iron 
or  steel  trade,  and  knew  little  or  nothing  of  metallurgy. 
But  this  fact  he  has  always  represented  as  being  rather  an 
advantage  than  a  drawback.  "  I  find,"  he  says,  "  in  my 
experience  with  regard  to  inventions,  that  the  most  intelli- 
gent manufacturers  invent  many  small  improvements  in 
various  departments  of  their  manufactures,  —  but,  gener- 
ally speaking,  these  are  only  small  ameliorations  based  on 
the  nature  of  the  operation  they  are  daily  pursuing ;  while, 
on  the  contrary,  persons  wholly  unconnected  with  any  par- 
18 


2/4  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

ticular  business  have  their  minds  so  free  and  untrammelled 
to  new  things  as  they  are,  and  as  they  would  present  them- 
selves to  an  independent  observer,  that  they  are  the  men 
who  eventually  produce  the  greatest  changes."  It  was  in 
this  spirit  that  he  began  his  investigations  in  metallurgy. 
His  first  business  was  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  the 
information  contained  in  the  best  works  then  published 
on  the  subject.  He  also  endeavored  to  add  some  practi- 
cal knowledge  to  what  he  learned  from  books.  With  this 
view  he  visited  the  iron-making  districts  in  the  north,  and 
there  obtained  an  insight  into  the  working  merits  and 
defects  of  the  processes  then  in  use.  On  his  return  to 
London  he  arranged  for  the  use  of  an  old  factory  in  St. 
Pancras,  where  he  began  his  own  series  of  experiments. 
He  converted  the  factory  into  a  small  experimental  "  iron- 
works," in  which  his  first  object  was  to  improve  the  qual- 
ity of  iron.  For  this  purpose  he  made  many  costly 
experiments  without  the  desired  measure  of  success,  but 
not  without  making  some  progress  in  the  right  direction. 
After  twelve  months  spent  in  these  experiments  he  pro- 
duced an  improved  quality  of  cast  iron,  which  was  almost 
as  white  as  steel,  and  was  both  tougher  and  stronger  than 
the  best  cast  iron  then  used  for  ordnance.  Of  this  metal 
he  cast  a  small  model  gun,  which  was  turned  and  bored. 
This  gun  he  took  to  Paris,  and  presented  it  personally  to 
the  Emperor,1  as  the  result  of  his  labors  thus  far.  His 
Majesty  encouraged  him  to  continue  his  experiments,  and 
desired  to  be  further  informed  of  the  results. 

As  Sir  Henry  continued  his  labors,  he  extended  their 
scope  from  the  production  of  refined  iron  to  that  of  steel ; 

l  Napoleon  III.,  under  whose  protection  Bessemer  had  been  experi- 
menting in  projectiles  when  his  attention  was  turned  to  the  manufacture  of 
iron. 


THE  F7RST  BAR.  2?$ 

and  in  order  to  protect  himself,  he  took  out  a  patent  for 
each  successive  improvement.  One  idea  after  another 
was  put  to  the  test  of  experiment ;  one  furnace  after  an- 
other was  pulled  down,  and  numerous  mechanical  appli- 
ances were  designed  and  tried  in  practice.  During  these 
experiments  he  specified  a  multitude  of  improvements  in 
the  crucible  process  of  making  steel ;  but  he  still  felt  that 
much  remained  to  be  done.  At  the  end  of  eighteen 
months,  he  says,  "  the  idea  struck  me  "  of  rendering  cast 
iron  malleable  by  the  introduction  of  atmospheric  air  into 
the  fluid  metal.  His  first  experiment  to  test  this  idea  was 
made  in  a  crucible  in  the  laboratory.  He  there  found 
that  by  blowing  air  into  the  molten  metal  in  the  crucible, 
by  means  of  a  movable  blow-pipe,  he  could  convert  ten 
pounds  or  twelve  pounds  of  crude  iron  into  the  softest 
malleable  iron.  The  samples  thus  produced  were  so  sat- 
isfactory in  all  their  mechanical  tests  that  he  brought  them 
under  the  notice  of  Colonel  Eardley  Wilmot,  then  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Royal  Gun  Factories,  who  expressed 
himself  delighted  and  astonished  at  the  result,  and  who 
offered  him  facilities  for  experimenting  in  Woolwich  Arse- 
nal. These  facilities  were  extended  to  him  in  the  labora- 
tory by  Professor  Abel,  who  made  numberless  analyses  of 
the  material  as  he  advanced  with  his  experiments.  The 
testing  department  was  also  put  at  his  disposal,  for  testing 
the  tensile  strength  and  elasticity  of  different  samples  of 
soft  malleable  iron  and  steel.  The  first  piece  that  was 
rolled  at  Woolwich  was  preserved  by  Sir  Henry  as  a  me- 
mento. It  was  a  small  bar  of  metal,  about  a  foot  long 
and  an  inch  wide,  and  was  converted  from  a  state  of  pig 
iron  in  a  crucible  of  only  ten  pounds.  That  small  piece 
of  bar,  after  being  rolled,  was  tried,  to  see  how  far  it  was 
capable  of  welding;  and  he  was  surprised  to  see  how 


2/6  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

easily  it  answered  the  severest  tests.  After  this  he  com- 
menced experiments  on  a  larger  scale.  He  had  proved 
in  the  laboratory  that  the  principle  of  purifying  pig  iron 
by  atmospheric  air  was  possible  ;  but  he  feared,  from  what 
he  knew  of  iron  metallurgy,  that  as  he  approached  the 
condition  of  pure  soft  malleable  iron,  he  must  of  necessity 
require  a  temperature  that  he  could  not  hope  to  attain 
under  these  conditions.  In  order  to  produce  larger  quan- 
tities of  metal  in  this  way,  one  of  his  first  ideas  was  to 
apply  the  air  to  the  molten  iron  in  crucibles ;  and  accord- 
ingly, in  October,  1855,  he  took  out  a  patent  embodying 
this  idea.  He  proposed  to  erect  a  large  circular  furnace, 
with  openings  for  the  reception  of  melting-pots  containing 
fluid  iron,  and  pipes  were  made  to  conduct  air  into  the 
centre  of  each  pot,  and  to  force  it  among  the  particles  of 
metal.  Having  thus  tested  the  purifying  effect  of  cold 
air  introduced  into  the  melting  iron  in  pots,  he  labored 
for  three  months  in  trying  to  overcome  the  mechanical 
difficulties  experienced  in  this  complicated  arrangement. 
He  wondered  whether  it  would  not  be  possible  to  dis- 
pense with  the  pipes  and  pots,  and  perform  the  whole 
operation  in  one  large  circular  or  egg-shaped  vessel.  The 
difficult  thing  in  doing  so,  was  to  force  the  air  all  through 
the  mass  of  liquid  metal.  While  this  difficulty  was  revolv- 
ing in  his  mind,  the  labor  and  anxiety  entailed  by  pre- 
vious experiments  brought  on  a  short  but  severe  illness ; 
and  while  he  was  lying  in  bed,  pondering  for  hours  upon 
the  prospects  of  succeeding  in  another  experiment  with 
the  pipes  and  pots,  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  difficulty 
might  be  got  over  by  introducing  air  into  a  large  vessel 
from  below  into  the  molten  mass  within. 

Though  he  entertained  grave  doubts  as  to  the  practica- 
bility of  carrying  out  this  idea,  chiefly  owing  to  the  high 


THE  RESULT  WAS  STEEL! 


temperature  required  to  maintain  the  iron  in  a  state  of  flu- 
idity while  the  impurities  were  being  burned  out,  he  deter- 
mined to  put  it  to  a  working  test  ;  and  on  recovering  health 
he  immediately  began  to  design  apparatus  for  this  pur- 
pose. He  constructed  a  circular  vessel,  measuring  three 
feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet  in  height,  and  capable  of 
holding  seven  hundred-weight  of  iron.  He  next  ordered 
a  small,  powerful  air-engine  and  a  quantity  of  crude  iron 
to  be  put  down  on  the  premises  in  St.  Pancras,  that  he 
had  hired  for  carrying  on  his  experiments.  The  name 
of  these  premises  was  Baxter  House,  formerly  the  resi- 
dence of  old  Richard  Baxter  ;  and  the  simple  experiment 
we  are  now  going  to  describe  has  made  that  house  more 
famous  than  ever.  The  primitive  apparatus  being  ready, 
the  engine  was  made  to  force  streams  of  air,  under  high 
pressure,  through  the  bottom  of  the  vessel,  which  was 
lined  with  fire-clay  ;  and  the  stoker  was  told  to  pour  the 
metal,  when  it  was  sufficiently  melted,  in  at  the  top  of  it. 
A  cast-iron  plate  —  one  of  those  lids  which  commonly 
cover  the  coal-holes  in  the  pavement  —  was  hung  over  the 
converter;  and  all  being  got  ready,  the  stoker  in  some 
bewilderment  poured  in  the  metal.  Instantly  out  came  a 
volcanic  eruption  of  such  dazzling  coruscations  as  had 
never  been  seen  before.  The  dangling  pot-lid  dissolved 
in  the  gleaming  volume  of  flame,  and  the  chain  by  which 
it  hung  grew  red  and  then  white,  as  the  various  stages  of 
the  process  were  unfolded  to  the  gaze  of  the  wondering 
spectators.  The  air-cock  to  regulate  the  blast  was  beside 
the  converting-vessel;  but  no  one  dared  to  go  near  it, 
much  less  deliberately  to  shut  it.  In  this  dilemma,  how- 
ever, they  were  soon  relieved  by  finding  that  the  process 
of  decarburization  or  combustion  had  expended  all  its 
fury  ;  and,  most  wonderful  of  all,  the  result  was  steel  ! 


2/8  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

The  new  metal  was  tried.  Its  quality  was  good.  The 
problem  was  solved.  The  new  process  appeared  success- 
ful. The  inventor  was  elated,  as  well  he  might  be  ! 

The  new  process  was  received  with  astonishment  by  all 
the  iron-working  world.  It  was  approved  by  many,  but 
scoffed  at  by  others.  As  trials  went  on,  however,  the 
feeling  against  it  increased.  The  iron  so  made  was  often 
"  rotten,"  and  no  one  could  tell  exactly  why. 

Bessemer,  however,  continued  to  investigate  everything 
for  himself,  regardless  of  all  suggestions.  Some  ideas  of 
permanent  value  were  offered  to  him,  but  were  set  at 
nought.  It  was  not  till  another  series  of  independent 
experiments  were  made  that  he  himself  discovered  the 
secret  of  failure.  It  then  appeared  that,  by  mere  chance, 
the  iron  used  in  his  first  experiments  was  Blaenavon  pig, 
which  is  exceptionally  free  from  phosphorus ;  and  con- 
sequently, when  other  sorts  of  iron  were  thrown  at  random 
into  the  converter,  the  phosphorus  manifested  its  refrac- 
tory nature  in  the  unworkable  character  of  the  metal  pro- 
duced. Analyses  made  by  Professor  Abel  for  Sir  Henry 
showed  that  this  was  the  real  cause  of  failure.  Once  con- 
vinced of  this  fact,  Sir  Henry  set  to  work  for  the  purpose 
of  removing  this  hostile  element.  He  saw  how  phospho- 
rus was  removed  in  the  puddling- furnace,  and  he  now 
tried  to  do  the  same  thing  in  his  converter.  Another 
series  of  costly  and  laborious  experiments  was  con- 
ducted ;  and  first  one  patent  and  then  another  was  taken 
out,  triad,  and  abandoned.  His  last  idea  was  to  make  a 
vessel  in  which  the  converting  process  did  not  take  place, 
but  into  which  he  could  put  the  pig  iron  as  soon  as  it  was 
melted,  along  with  the  same  kind  of  materials  that  were 
used  in  the  puddling-furnace.  He  was  then  of  opinion 
that  he  must  come  as  near  to  puddling  as  possible,  in 


DEFINITIONS.  2?$ 

order  to  get  the  phosphorus  out  of  the  iron.  Just  as  he 
was  preparing  to  put  this  plan  into  operation,  there  arrived 
in  England  some  pig  iron  which  he  had  ordered  from 
Sweden  some  months  previously.  When  this  iron,  which 
was  free  from  phosphorus,  was  put  into  the  converter,  it 
yielded,  in  the  very  first  experiment,  a  metal  of  so  high  a 
quality  that  he  at  once  abandoned  his  efforts  to  dephos- 
phorize ordinary  iron.  The  Sheffield  manufacturers  were 
then  selling  steel  at  ^60  a  ton ;  and  he  thought  that  as 
he  could  buy  pig  iron  at  £]  a  ton,  and  by  blowing  it  a 
few  minutes  in  the  converter  could  make  it  into  what  was 
being  sold  at  such  a  high  price,  the  problem  was  solved. 

But  there  was  yet  one  thing  wanting.  He  had  now 
succeeded  in  producing  the  purest  malleable  iron  ever 
made,  and  that,  too,  by  a  quicker  and  less  expensive 
process  than  was  ever  known  before.  But  what  he  wanted 
was  to  make  steel.  The  former  is  iron  in  its  greatest 
possible  purity ;  the  latter  is  pure  iron  containing  a  small 
percentage  of  carbon  to  harden  it.  There  has  been  an 
almost  endless  controversy  in  trying  to  make  a  definition 
that  will  fix  the  dividing  line  that  separates  the  one  metal 
from  the  other.1 

For  our  present  purpose,  suffice  it  to  quote  the  account 
given  in  a  popular  treatise  on  metallurgy,  published  at  the 
time  when  Bessemer  was  in  the  midst  of  his  experiments. 

1  In  Griiner's  text-book  on  steel,  he  says :  "  In  its  properties,  as  well  as 
in  its  manufacture,  steel  is  comprised  between  the  limits  of  cast  and 
wrought  iron.  It  cannot  even  be  said  where  steel  begins  or  ends.  It  is  a 
series  which  begins  with  the  most  impure  black  pig  iron,  and  ends  with  the 
softest  and  purest  wrought  iron.  [Karsten  stated  this  in  these  words  in 
1823.]  Cast  iron  passes  into  hard  steel  in  becoming  malleable  (natural 
steel  for  wire-mills,  the  '  WildstahP  of  the  Germans) ;  and  steel,  properly 
so  called,  passes  into  iron,  giving  in  succession  mild  steel,  steel  of  the 
nature  of  iron,  steely  iron,  and  granular  iron." 


280  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

" Wrought  iron/'  it  says,  "or  soft  iron,  may  contain  no 
carbon ;  and  if  perfectly  pure,  would  contain  none,  nor 
indeed  any  other  impurity.  This  is  a  state  to  be  desired 
and  aimed  at,  but  it  has  never  yet  been  perfectly  attained 
in  practice.  The  best  as  well  as  the  commonest  foreign 
irons  always  contain  more  or  less  carbon.  .  .  .  Carbon 
may  exist  in  iron  in  the  ratio  of  65  parts  to  10,000  with- 
out assuming  the  properties  of  steel.  If  the  proportion  be 
greater  than  that,  and  anywhere  between  the  limits  of  65 
parts  of  carbon  to  10,000  parts  of  iron  and  2  parts  of 
carbon  to  100  of  iron,  the  alloy  assumes  the  properties  of 
steel.  In  cast  iron  the  carbon  exceeds  2  per  cent,  but  in 
appearance  and  properties  it  differs  widely  from  the  hard- 
est steel.  These  properties,  although  we  quote  them,  are 
somewhat  doubtful;  and  the  chemical  constitution  of 
these  three  substances  may,  perhaps,  be  regarded  as  still 
undetermined."  Now,  in  the  Bessemer  converter  the  car- 
bon was  almost  entirely  consumed.  In  the  small  gun  just 
described,1  there  were  only  14  parts  of  carbon  for  1,000,000 
parts  of  iron.  Bessemer's  next  difficulty  was  to  carburize 
his  pure  iron,  and  thus  to  make  it  into  steel.  "The 
wrought  iron,"  says  Mr.  I.  L.  Bell,  "  as  well  as  the  steel 
made  according  to  Sir  Henry  Bessemer's  original  plan, 
though  a  purer  specimen  of  metal  was  never  heard  of 
except  in  the  laboratory,  was  simply  worthless.  In  this 
difficulty,  a  ray  of  scientific  truth,  brought  to  light  one 
hundred  years  before,  came  to  the  rescue.  Bergmann 
was  one  of  the  earliest  philosophers  who  discarded  all 
theory,  and  introduced  into  chemistry  that  process  of 
analysis  which  is  the  indispensable  antecedent  of  scientific 
system.  This  Swedish  experimenter  had  ascertained  the 

1  A  small  cannon  cast  by  Sir  Henry,  the  description  of  which  we  have 
omitted. 


THE   CONVERTER  MOUNTED.  28 1 

existence  of  manganese  in  the  iron  of  that  country,  and 
connected  its  presence  with  suitability  for  steel  purposes." 
Manganese  is  a  kind  of  iron  exceptionally  rich  in  carbon, 
and  also  exceptionally  free  from  other  impurities.  Berze- 
lius,  Rinman,  Karsten,  Berthier,  and  other  metallurgists 
had  before  now  discussed  its  effect  when  combined  with 
ordinary  iron ;  and  the  French  were  so  well  aware  that 
ferro-manganese  ores  were  superior  for  steel-making  pur- 
poses that  they  gave  them  the  name  of  mines  d'acier.  So 
Bessemer,  after  many  experiments,  discovered  a  method 
whereby,  with  the  use  of  ferro-manganese,  he  could  make 
what  is  known  as  mild  steel.  The  process  of  manufacture, 
when  described  by  Sir  Henry  Bessemer  at  Cheltenham  in 
I856,1  was  so  nearly  complete,  that  only  two  important 
additions  were  made  afterwards.  One  was  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  ferro-manganese  for  the  purpose  of  imparting 
to  his  pure  liquid  iron  the  properties  of  "mild  steel." 
The  other  was  an  improvement  in  the  mechanical  appara- 
tus. He  found  that  when  the  air  had  been  blown  into 
the  iron  till  all  the  carbon  was  expelled,  the  continuance 
of  "  the  blow  "  afterward  consumed  the  iron  at  a  very 
rapid  rate,  and  a  great  loss  of  iron  thus  took  place.  It 
was  therefore  necessary  to  cease  blowing  at  a  particular 
moment.  At  first  he  saw  no  practical  way  by  which  he 
could  prevent  the  metal  going  into  the  air-holes  in  the 
bottom  of  the  vessel  below  the  level  of  the  liquid  mass, 
so  as  to  stop  them  up  immediately  on  ceasing  to  force  the 
air  through  them ;  for  if  he  withdrew  the  pressure  of  air, 
the  whole  apparatus  would  be  destroyed  for  a  time. 
Here,  again,  his  inventive  genius  found  a  remedy.  He 
had  the  converter  holding  the  molten  iron  mounted  on  an 

1  Immediately  after  his  first   successful   experiment  at  St.   Pancras, 
described  above. 


282  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

axis,  which  enabled  him  at  any  moment  he  liked  to  turn 
it  round  and  to  bring  the  holes  above  the  level  of  the 
metal ;  whenever  this  was  done  the  process  of  conversion 
or  combustion  ceased  of  itself,  and  the  apparatus  had 
only  to  be  turned  back  again  in  order  to  resume  the 
operation.  This  turning  on  an  axis  of  a  furnace  weighing 
eleven  tons,  and  containing  five  tons  of  liquid  metal,  at  a 
temperature  scarcely  approachable,  was  a  system  entirely 
different  from  anything  that  had  preceded  it;  for  it  he 
took  out  what  he  considered  one  of  his  most  important 
patents,  "and,"  he  says,  "I  am  vain  enough  to  believe 
that  so  long  as  my  process  lasts,  the  motion  of  the  vessel 
containing  the  fluid  on  its  axis  will  be  retained  as  an  abso- 
lute necessity  for  any  form  which  the  process  may  take 
at  any  future  time."  The  patent  for  this  invention  was 
taken  out  about  four  years  after  his  original  patent  for  the 
converter. 

Uncle  Fritz  showed  them  a  picture  of  this  gigantic 
kettle,  which  holds  this  mass  of  molten  metal  and  yet 
turns  so  easily. 

"But,"  said  Helen,  "you  have  a  model  of  it  here, 
Uncle  Fritz."  And  she  pointed  to  her  Uncle  Fritz's  ink- 
stand, which  is  something  the  shape  of  a  fat  beet-root, 
with  the  point  turned  up  to  receive  the  ink.  Uncle  Fritz 
nodded  his  approval.  These  inkstands,  which  turn  over 
on  a  little  brazen  axis,  were  probably  first  made  by  some 
one  who  had  seen  the  great  eleven-ton  converters. 

Uncle  Fritz  showed  the  children  the  picture  in  the 
"  Practical  Magazine,"  and  they  spent  some  time  together 
in  looking  over  the  pages  of  the  volume  for  1876. 

The  Bessemer  process  was  now  perfect.  Nearly  four 
years  had  elapsed  since  its  conception  and  first  applica- 
tion ;  and  in  addition  to  the  necessary  labor  arid  anxiety 


AMERICAN  WORKS.  283 

he  had  experienced,  no  less  than  ^20,000  had  been  ex- 
pended in  making  experiments  that  were  necessary  to 
complete  its  success.  It  only  remained  to  bring  the 
process  into  general  use. 


The  young  people  asked  quite  eagerly  whether  they 
could  see  the  processes  of  "  conversion  "  anywhere,  and 
were  glad  to  be  told  that  Bessemer  steel  is  made  in  many 
parts  of  America.  One  of  their  young  friends,  who  was 
educated  at  the  "Technology,"  is  in  charge  of  a  depart- 
ment at  Steelton,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  they  have  all  written 
letters  to  him. 

The  American  steel-makers  have  a  great  variety  of  ores 
to  choose  from,  and  they  have  found  it  possible,  by  using 
different  ores,  to  avoid  the  difficulties  which  Mr.  Bessemer 
first  met  in  using  the  ores  of  England. 

And  so  far  are  the  processes  now  simplified,  that  in 
many  American  establishments  the  molten  iron  is  re- 
ceived liquid  from  the  blast  furnaces,  and  does  not  have 
to  be  reduced  a  second  time  in  a  cupola  furnace,  as  was 
the  iron  used  by  Mr.  Bessemer.  There  is  no  cooling,  in 
such  establishments,  between  the  ore  and  the  finished 
steel 


XIV. 

THE   LAST  MEETING. 
GOODYEAR. 

TX7HEN  the  day  for  the  next  meeting  came,  Uncle 
*  *  Fritz  had  a  large  collection  of  books  and  maga- 
zines in  the  little  rolling  racks  and  tables  where  such 
things  are  kept.  But  no  one  of  them  was  opened. 

No.  The  young  people  appeared  in  great  strength,  all 
at  the  same  moment,  and  notified  him  that  he  was  to  put 
on  his  hat  and  his  light  overcoat,  and  go  with  them  on 
what  they  called  the  first  "Alp  "  of  the  season.  For  there 
is  a  pretence  in  the  little  company  that  they  are  an  Alpine 
Club,  and  that  for  eight  months  of  the  year  it  is  their 
duty  to  climb  the  highest  mountains  near  Boston. 

Now,  the  very  highest  of  these  peaks  is  the  summit  hill 
of  the  Blue  Hills,  to  which  indeed  Massachusetts  owes  its 
name.  For  "Matta"  in  the  Algonquin  tongue  meant 
"great,"  and  "Chuset"  meant  "a  hill."  And  a  woman 
who  was  living  on  a  little  hummock  near  Squantum,  just 
before  Winthrop  and  the  rest  landed,  was  the  sacred  Sa- 
chem of  the  Massachusetts  Indians.  Hence  the  name  of 
Mattachusetts  Bay ;  and  then,  by  euphony  or  bad  spell- 
ing, or  both,  Massachusetts. 

Uncle  Fritz  obeyed  the  rabble  rout,  as  he  is  apt  to  do. 
He  retired  for  a  minute  to  put  on  heavier  shoes,  and,  when 


MR.  GOODYEAR.  28$ 

he  reappeared,  he  took  the  seat  of  honor  in  the  leading 
omnibus.  And  a  very  merry  expedition  they  had  to  the 
summit,  where,  as  the  accurate  Fergus  told  them,  they 
were  six  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  There 
was  but  little  wood,  and  they  were  able  to  lie  and  sit  in  a 
large  group  on  the  ground  just  on  the  lee  side  of  the  hill, 
where  they  could  look  off  on  the  endless  sea. 

"Whom  should  you  have  told  us  about,  had  it  rained?" 
said  Mabel  Fordyce. 

"  Oh  !  you  were  to  have  had  your  choice.  There  are 
still  left  many  inventors.  I  had  looked  at  Mr.  Parton's  Life 
of  Goodyear,  and  the  very  curious  brief  prepared  for  the 
court  about  his  patents.  Half  of  you  would  not  be  here 
to-day  but  for  that  ingenious  and  long-suffering  man." 

"Should  not  I  have  come?"  said  Gertrude,  incredu- 
lously. 

"  Surely  not,"  said  Uncle  Fritz,  laughing.  "  I  saw  your 
water-proof  in  your  shawl-strap.  I  know  your  mamma 
well  enough  to  know  that  you  would  never  have  been 
permitted  to  come  so  far  from  home  without  that  segis, 
or  without  those  trig,  pretty  overshoes.  You  owe  water- 
proof and  overshoes  both  to  the  steady  perseverance  of 
Goodyear  and  to  the  loyal  help  of  his  wife  and  daughters. 
Some  day  you  must  read  Mr.  Webster's  eulogy  on  him 
and  them.  Indeed,  he  is  the  American  Palissy.  You 
hear  a  good  deal  of  woman's  rights ;  but,  really,  modern 
women  had  no  rights  worth  speaking  of  till  Mr.  Goodyear 
enabled  them  to  go  out-doors  in  all  weathers. 

"  I  meant  we  should  have  an  afternoon  with  the  Good- 
years.  Then  I  meant  that  you  should  know,  Gertrude, 
where  that  slice  of  bread  came  from." 

"  Well,"  said  she,  "  I  do  not  know  much,  but  I  do 
know  that.  It  came  out  of  the  bread- box." 


286  sroxszs  OF  INVENTION. 

"  Very  good,"  said  the  Colonel,  laughing.  "  But  some- 
body put  it  into  the  bread-box.  And  it  is  quite  as  well 
that  you  should  know  who  put  it  in.  American  girls  and 
American  boys  ought  to  know  that  men's  prayer  for  '  Daily 
Bread '  is  answered  more  and  more  largely  every  year. 
They  ought  to  know  why.  Well,  the  great  reason  is  that 
reaping  and  binding  after  the  reapers,  nay,  that  sowing 
the  corn,  and  every  process  between  sowing  and  harvest, 
has  been  wellnigh  perfected  by  the  American  inventors. 
So  I  had  wanted  to  give  a  day  or  two  to  reapers  and 
binders,  and  the  other  machinery  of  harvesting.  Indeed, 
if  our  winter  had  been  as  long  as  poor  Captain  Greely's 
was,  and  if  you  had  met  me  every  week,  we  should  have 
had  a  new  invention  for  each  one.  Here  are  the  telephone 
and  the  telegraph.  Here  is  the  use  of  the  electric  light. 
Here  is  the  sewing-machine,  with  all  its  nice  details,  like 
the  button-hole  maker.  Nay,  every  button  is  made  by  its 
own  machinery.  Here  are  carpets  one  quarter  cheaper 
than  they  were  only  four  years  ago ;  cotton  cloths  made 
more  by  machinery  and  less  by  hand  labor ;  nay,  they  tell 
us  that  the  cotton  is  to  be  picked  by  a  machine  before 
long. 

"  But  these  are  things  you  must  work  up  for  yourselves. 
You  are  on  a  good  track  now,  and  have  learned  some  of 
the  principles  of  such  study. 

"  Go  to  the  originals  whenever  you  can.  Read  what 
you  understand,  and  fall  back  on  what  you  did  not  under- 
stand at  first,  so  as  to  try  it  again." 

"  Do  you  not  think  that  all  the  great  things  have  been 
invented,  Uncle  Fritz?" 

This  was  John  Angier's  rather  melancholy  question. 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it,  my  boy.  Certainly  not  for  as  keen 
eyes  as  yours  and  as  handy  hands.  Let  me  tell  you 


DIFFICUL  TIES.  287 

what  I  heard  President  Dawson  say.  He  is  President  of 
McGill  University,  and  is  counted  one  of  the  first  physical 
philosophers  in  America. 

"  He  said  this  in  substance :  '  What  will  future  times 
say  of  us,  the  men  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  ? 
They  will  say,  "What  was  the  ban  on  those  men,  what 
numbed  them  or  held  them  still,  as  if  in  fear  ?  Why  did 
they  not  apply  in  daily  life  their  own  great  discoveries  of 
the  central  laws  of  Nature  ?  They  were  able  to  work  out 
principles.  Why  could  they  not  embody  them  in  useful 
inventions?  They  discovered  the  Ocean  of  Truth,  but 
they  stood  frightened  on  its  shore.  They  found  the 
great  principles  of  science,  and  for  their  application  they 
seem  to  have  been  satisfied  when  they  had  built  the 
steam-engine,  had  devised  the  telegraph,  the  telephone, 
the  phonograph,  and  when  they  had  set  the  electric  light 
a  blazing." ' 

"  You  see,  John,  that  he  thinks  there  is  enough  more 
for  you  and  the  rest  to  invent  and  to  discover." 

Then  Uncle  Fritz  took  from  his  ulster  pocket  Mr. 
Parton's  volume  of  biographical  sketches. 

"It  is  all  very  fine  for  you,  Miss  Alice,"  he  said,  "to 
lie  there  on  your  waterproof,  and  to  be  sure  that  even 
mamma  will  not  scold  when  you  go  home.  But  take  the 
book,  and  read,  and  see  who  has  wept  and  who  has 
starved  that  you  might  lie  there." 

And  Alice  read  the  passages  he  had  marked  for  her. 

The  difficulty  of  all  this  may  be  inferred  when  we  state 
that  at  the  present  time  it  takes  an  intelligent  man  a  year 
to  learn  how  to  conduct  the  process  with  certainty,  though 
he  is  provided,  from  the  start,  with  the  best  implements 
and  appliances  which  twenty  years'  experience  has  sug- 


288  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

gested.  And  poor  Goodyear  had  now  reduced  himself, 
not  merely  to  poverty,  but  to  isolation.  No  friend  of  his 
could  conceal  his  impatience  when  he  heard  him  pro- 
nounce the  word  "  India-rubber."  Business-men  recoiled 
from  the  name  of  it.  He  tells  us  that  two  entire  years 
passed,  after  he  had  made  his  discovery,  before  he  had 
convinced  one  human  being  of  its  value.  Now,  too,  his 
experiments  could  no  longer  be  carried  on  with  a  few 
pounds  of  India-rubber,  a  quart  of  turpentine,  a  phial 
of  aquafortis,  and  a  little  lampblack.  He  wanted  the 
means  of  producing  a  high,  uniform,  and  controllable  de- 
gree of  heat,  —  a  matter  of  much  greater  difficulty  than 
he  anticipated.  We  catch  brief  glimpses  of  him  at  this 
time  in  the  volumes  of  testimony.  We  see  him  waiting 
for  his  wife  to  draw  the  loaves  from  her  oven,  that  he 
might  put  into  it  a  batch  of  India-rubber  to  bake,  and 
watching  it  all  the  evening,  far  into  the  night,  to  see  what 
effect  was  produced  by  one  hour's,  two  hours',  three 
hours',  six  hours'  baking.  We  see  him  boiling  it  in  his 
wife's  saucepans,  suspending  it  before  the  nose  of  her  tea-- 
kettle, and  hanging  it  from  the  handle  of  that  vessel 
to  within  an  inch  of  the  boiling  water.  We  see  him 
roasting  it  in  the  ashes  and  in  hot  sand,  toasting  it  before 
a  slow  fire  and  before  a  quick  fire,  cooking  It  for  one  hour 
and  for  twenty-four  hours,  changing  the  proportions  of  his 
compound  and  mixing  them  in  different  ways.  No  sue- 
cess  rewarded  him  while  he  employed  only  domestic 
utensils.  Occasionally,  it  is  true,  he  produced  a  small 
piece  of  perfectly  vulcanized  India-rubber ;  but  upon  sub- 
jecting other  pieces  to  precisely  the  same  process,  they 
would  blister  or  char. 

Then  we  see  him  resorting  to  the  shops  and  factories 
in   the   neighborhood   of  Woburn,   asking  the   privilege 


POVERTY.  289 

of  using  an  oven  after  working  hours,  or  of  hanging 
a  piece  of  India-rubber  in  the  "  man- hole  "  of  the  boiler. 
The  foremen  testify  that  he  was  a  great  plague  to  them, 
and  smeared  their  works  with  his  sticky  compound ;  but 
though  they  regarded  him  as  little  better  than  a  trouble- 
some lunatic,  they  all  appear  to  have  helped  him  very 
willingly.  He  frankly  confesses  that  he  lived  at  this  time 
on  charity ;  for  although  he  felt  confident  of  being  able 
to  repay  the  small  sums  which  pity  for  his  family  enabled 
him  to  borrow,  his  neighbors  who  lent  him  the  money 
were  as  far  as  possible  from  expecting  payment.  Pretending 
to  lend,  they  meant  to  give.  One  would  pay  his  butcher's 
bill  or  his  milk-bill  j  another  would  send  in  a  barrel  of 
flour ;  another  would  take  in  payment  some  articles  of  the 
old  stock  of  India-rubber ;  and  some  of  the  farmers  allowed 
his  children  to  gather  sticks  in  their  fields  to  heat  his 
hillocks  of  sand  containing  masses  of  sulphurized  India- 
rubber.  If  the  people  of  New  England  were  not  the 
most  "  neighborly  "  people  in  the  world,  his  family  must 
have  starved,  or  he  must  have  given  up  his  experiments. 
But,  with  all  the  generosity  of  his  neighbors,  his  children 
Were  often  sick,  hungry,  and  cold,  without  medicine,  food, 
or  fuel.  One  witness  testifies:  "I  found,  in  1839,  that 
they  had  not  fuel  to  burn  nor  food  to  eat,  and  did  not 
know  where  to  get  a  morsel  of  food  from  one  day  to  an- 
other, unless  it  was  sent  in  to  them."  We  can  neither 
justify  nor  condemn  their  father.  Imagine  Columbus 
within  sight  of  the  new  world,  and  his  obstinate  crew 
declaring  it  was  only  a  mirage,  and  refusing  to  row  him 
ashore.  Never  was  mortal  man  surer  that  he  had  a  for- 
tune in  his  hand,  than  Charles  Goodyear  was  when  he 
would  take  a  piece  of  scorched  and  dingy  India-rubber 
from  his  pocket  and  expound  its  marvellous  properties 

IQ 


2QO  STORIES   OF  INVENTION. 

to  a  group  of  incredulous  villagers.  Sure  also  was  he  that 
he  was  just  upon  the  point  of  a  practicable  success. 
Give  him  but  an  oven  and  would  he  not  turn  you  out  fire- 
proof and  cold-proof  India-rubber,  as  fast  as  a  baker  can 
produce  loaves  of  bread  ?  Nor  was  it  merely  the  hope 
of  deliverance  from  his  pecuniary  straits  that  urged  him 
on.  In  all  the  records  of  his  career,  we  perceive  traces 
of  something  nobler  than  this.  His  health  being  always 
infirm,  he  was  haunted  with  the  dread  of  dying  before 
he  had  reached  a  point  in  his  discoveries  where  other 
men,  influenced  by  ordinary  motives,  could  render  them 
available. 

By  the  time  that  he  had  exhausted  the  patience  of  the 
foremen  of  the  works  near  Woburn,  he  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  an  oven  was  the  proper  means  of  apply- 
ing heat  to  his  compound.  An  oven  he  forthwith  de- 
termined to  build.  Having  obtained  the  use  of  a  corner 
of  a  factory  yard,  his  aged  father,  two  of  his  brothers,  his 
little  son,  and  himself  sallied  forth,  with  pickaxe  and 
shovels,  to  begin  the  work ;  and  when  they  had  done  all 
that  unskilled  labor  could  effect  towards  it,  he  induced 
a  mason  to  complete  it,  and  paid  him  in  brick-layers' 
aprons  made  of  aquafortized  India-rubber.  This  first 
oven  was  a  tantalizing  failure.  The  heat  was  neither 
uniform  nor  controllable.  Some  of  the  pieces  of  India- 
rubber  would  come  out  so  perfectly  "cured"  as  to 
demonstrate  the  utility  of  his  discovery ;  but  others,  pre- 
pared in  precisely  the  same  manner,  as  far  as  he  could 
discern,  were  spoiled,  either  by  blistering  or  charring. 
He  was  puzzled  and  distressed  beyond  description ;  and 
no  single  voice  consoled  or  encouraged  him.  Out  of  the 
first  piece  of  cloth  which  he  succeeded  in  vulcanizing  he 
had  a  coat  made  for  himself,  which  was  not  an  ornamental 


BURIED  IN  SNOW.  29 1 

garment  in  its  best  estate ;  but,  to  prove  to  the  unbelievers 
that  it  would  stand  fire,  he  brought  it  so  often  in  contact 
with  hot  stoves,  that  at  last  it  presented  an  exceedingly 
dingy  appearance.  His  coat  did  not  impress  the  public 
favorably,  and  it  served  to  confirm  the  opinion  that  he  was 
laboring  under  a  mania. 

In  the  midst  of  his  first  disheartening  experiments  with 
sulphur,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  escaping  at  once  from 
his  troubles.  A  house  in  Paris  made  him  an  advantageous 
offer  for  the  use  of  his  aquafortis  process.  From  the 
abyss  of  his  misery  the  honest  man  promptly  replied,  that 
that  process,  valuable  as  it  was,  was  about  to  be  superseded 
by  a  new  method,  which  he  was  then  perfecting,  and  as 
soon  as  he  had  developed  it  sufficiently  he  should  be  glad 
to  close  with  their  offers.  Can  we  wonder  that  his  neigh- 
bors thought  him  mad? 

It  was  just  after  declining  the  French  proposal  that  he 
endured  his  worst  extremity  of  want  and  humiliation.  It 
was  in  the  winter  of  1839-40 ;  one  of  those  long  and 
terrible  snowstorms  for  which  New  England  is  noted,  had 
been  raging  for  many  hours,  and  he  awoke  one  morning 
to  find  his  little  cottage  half  buried  in  snow,  the  storm 
still  continuing,  and  in  his  house  not  an  atom  of  fuel  nor 
a  morsel  of  food.  His  children  were  very  young,  and  he 
was  himself  sick  and  feeble.  The  charity  of  his  neighbors 
was  exhausted,  and  he  had  not  the  courage  to  face  their 
reproaches.  As  he  looked  out  of  the  window  upon  the 
dreary  and  tumultuous  scene, —  "  fit  emblem  of  his  condi- 
tion," he  remarks,  —  he  called  to  mind  that  a  few  days 
before,  an  acquaintance,  a  mere  acquaintance,  who  lived 
some  miles  off,  had  given  him  upon  the  road  a  more 
friendly  greeting  than  he  was  then  accustomed  to  receive. 
It  had  cheered  his  heart  as  he  trudged  sadly  by,  and 


292  STORIES  OF  INVENTION. 

it  now  returned  vividly  to  his  mind.  To  this  gentleman 
he  determined  to  apply  for  relief,  if  he  could  reach  his 
house.  Terrible  was  his  struggle  with  the  wind  and  the 
<3eep  drifts.  Often  he  was  ready  to  faint  with  fatigue, 
sickness,  and  hunger,  and  he  would  be  obliged  to  sit 
down  upon  a  bank  of  snow  to  rest.  He  reached  the 
house  and  told  his  story,  not  omitting  the  oft-told  tale 
of  his  new  discovery,  —  that  mine  of  wealth,  if  only  he 
could  procure  the  means  of  working  it.  The  eager  elo- 
quence of  the  inventor  was  seconded  by  the  gaunt  and 
yellow  face  of  the  man.  His  generous  acquaintance  en- 
tertained him  cordially,  and  lent  him  a  sum  of  money, 
which  not  only  carried  his  family  through  the  worst  of 
the  winter,  but  enabled  him  to  continue  his  experiments  on 
a  small  scale.  O.  B.  Coolidge,  of  Woburn,  was  the  name 
of  this  benefactor. 

On  another  occasion,  when  he  was  in  the  most  urgent 
need  of  materials,  he  looked  about  his  house  to  see 
if  there  was  left  one  relic  of  better  days  upon  which 
a  little  money  could  be  borrowed.  There  was  nothing 
but  his  children's  school-books,  —  the  last  things  from 
which  a  New  Englander  is  willing  to  part.  There  was  no 
other  resource.  He  gathered  them  up,  and  sold  them 
for  five  dollars,  with  which  he  laid  in  a  fresh  stock  of  gum 
and  sulphur,  and  kept  on  experimenting. 

Alice  and  Hester  looked  over  the  rest  of  the  story 
while  the  others  jpacked  up  the  wrecks  of  the  picnic  and 
prepared  to  go  down  the  hill.  Then  they  joined  Uncle 
Fritz  in  the  advance,  and  thanked  him  very  seriously  for 
what  he  had  shown  them. 

"Such  a  story  as  that,"  said  Hester,  "is  worth  more 
than  anything  about  cut-offs  or  valves." 


BEARING   TEST.  293 

"  I  think  so  too,"  said  he. 

"  I  should  like,"  said  the  girl,  "  to  write  to  those  chil- 
dren of  his  a  letter  to  thank  them  for  what  they  have 
done,  and  what  he  did  for  me,  and  a  million  girls  like 
me." 

"It  would  be  a  good  thing  to  do,"  said  he,  "and 
I  think  I  can  put  you  in  the  way." 

"And  I  do  hope,"  said  Alice,  eagerly,  "that  if  we  are 
ever  tested  in  that  way  we  shall  bear  the  test." 

"Dear  Uncle  Fritz,  if  we  cannot  invent  a  flying- 
machine,  and  have  not  learned  how  to  close  up  rivets  this 
winter,  we  have  learned  at  least  how  to  bear  each  other's 
burdens." 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Abel,  Professor  .    .    .      275,  278 

Althorp,  Lord 268 

Anderson 246 

Archimedes 18, 20 

Bacon,  Roger 37 

Barlow,  Joel 179 

Baxter  House 277 

Beccaria 114 

Bell,  I.  L.       ......     280 

Benvenuto  Cellini    ....      58 

Bernard  Palissy 82 

Berthier 281 

Berzelius 281 

Bessemer,  Andrew  ....  262 
Bessemer,  Sir  Henry  .  .  .  259 
Bessemer  and  Catherwood  .  263 

Black,  Dr. 165 

Blue  Hills,  Mass 284 

Bossuet .     183 

Boulton,  Matthew  .  .  .  171,  181 
Bourbon,  Constable  ...  63 
Braithwaite  and  Ericsson  .  .  212 

Brandreth 212 

Bridgewater  Foundry  .  .249,  255 
Brunei,  Isambert  ....  178 

Bungy,  Friar 4I 

Burstall 212,  216 

Carriage,  Sailing      ....     141 

Car  of  Neptune 189 

Caslon,  Henry 263 

Cellini,  Benvenuto  ....  58 
Chaise,  One-wheeled  ...  144 


PAGE 

Charles  IX.  of  France      .    .  96 

Cheltenham 281 

Church,  Benjamin    ....  174 

Circle,  The  Square  of  ...  22 

Clement  VII 62 

Condensation 159 

Conductors  of  Electricity  .     .  105 

Constable  Bourbon,  shot  .     .  63 

Coolidge,  O.  B 292 

Court  of  Chancery,  N.  Y.      .  189 

Dalibard 108 

Darwin,  Dr 135 

Dawson,  President  ....  286 

De  Foe,  Daniel 99 

Devonport 252 

Didot,  Finnin 263 

Dixon,  John 205 

Droz,  Frangois  Xavier  Joseph  102 

Edgeworth,  Richard  Lovell  .  119 

Edison's  Laboratory     ...  51 

Electricity 103 

Elkingtons 263 

Engines,  Early  Steam  .    .    .  149 

Euclid 20 

Evans,  Oliver 175 

Experiment,  The  Great    .     .  in 

Field,  Joshua 249 

Fitch,  John    ....       177,  190 

"Firework,"  The    .     .     .     .  155 

Francis  I.       » 71 

Franklin,  Benjamin       97,  177,  237 

Fulton,  Robert 173 


296 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Gig,  One-wheeled    .     .     .    .  145 
Glasses,  Musical      .     .     .115-117 

Gold  Paint 270 

Goodyear,  Charles   ....  285 
Greene,  Mrs.  General  .     .  227,  229 

Griiner 279 

Gun  Factories 275 

Hackworth,  Timothy   .     .     .  212 

Hammerfield 257 

Harmonica 113 

Hart's  Recollections     .     .     .  161 
Hartop,  Annie  (Mrs.  Bessemer)  250 

Helton  Railway 203 

Hiero    ........  21 

Hitchin 264 

Hooke,  Dr.  Robert  ....  137 

Hulls,  Jonathan 176 

Jack  the  Darter 142 

Jay,  John 220 

Jefferson,  Thomas  ....  233 

Jouffroy,  Marquis  de    ...  176 

Karsten 281 

Keramics 82 

Killingworth  Colliery   .     .     .  195 

Latent  Heat   ......  157 

Lightning 107 

Livingston,  Chancellor      .     .  178 

Mackintosh,  James  .     .     .     .  173 

Maclaughlan,  Robert   .     .     .  246 

Manchester 249 

Marcellus  attacks  Syracuse    .  26 
Massachusetts,  Derivation  of 

Name 284 

Maudsley,  Henry     ....  247 

Middleton  Colliery  Railway  .  203 

Miller,  Phineas 231 

Minie,  Commander  ....  273 

Musical  Glasses 115 

Napoleon  L    . 175 

Napoleon  III 274 

Nasmyth,  James      ....  238 
Newcomen  Engine  .    150,  167,  169 


PAGE 

Nuremburg 271 

Palissy  the  Potter    ....  82 

Papin,  Denis 176 

Patricroft 256 

P6rier    ........  176 

Persley,  Sir  Charles     ...  266 

Plombieres 180 

Pope  Clement  VII.      ...  62 

Potter,  Humphrey   .     .     .     .  152 

Practical  Magazine  ....  282 

Quincy 194 

Rastrick  and  Walker    .     .    .  217 

Ravensworth,  Lord      .     .     .  195 

Renard  and  Krebs  .     .     .     .  174 

Resolution  Book      .     .     .     .  101 

Rinman .  281 

Robespierre,  Max 261 

Robison 154,  165 

Roebuck,  Dr 171 

Roger  Bacon 37 

Roosevelt,  Nicholas     .     .     .  178 

Royal  Academy 265 

Royal  Gun  Factories    .     .    .  275 

Rumsey,  James 177 

St.  Pancras 274 

St.  Petersburg    ....  192,  253 

Savery 176 

Scottish  Society  of  Arts    .     .  246 

Sharp  Conductors    ....  105 

Somerset  House      ....  265 

Sounds  and  Signals      .     .     .  139 

Stanhope,  Earl 179 

Stamp  Office,  English  ...  266 

Steam-Engines,  Early  .     .     .  149 

Stephenson,  George    .     .     .  193 

Stephenson,  Robert     .     .     .  208 

Stevens,  John 178 

Stevens,  Robert  L 192 

Sweden 254 

Symington 180, 182 

Syracuse,  Siege  of    ....  25 

Telegraph,  Edgeworth's   .     .  124 


INDEX. 


297 


PAGE 

Telegraph,  English  ....  133 

Telegraph,  Irish 127 

Telegraph,  Home    ....  139 

Telegraphs 125,  126 

.  137 

.  100 

.  195 

•  65 

•  53 
.  217 


Tellograph  .  .  . 
Thirteen  Virtues  . 
Travelling  Engine  . 
Ugolini,  Giorgio 

Virgil 

Walker  and  Rastrick 


Walking-machine     ....  140 

Watt,  James 146 

Whistler,  Major  G.  W.     .    .  254 

Whitney,  Eli 219 

Wilmot,  Col.  Eardley  ...  275 

Wood,  Nicholas 213 

Woolwich  Arsenal  .     .     .     .  275 
Wylam  and  Killingworth  Rail- 
way      203 

Zonara 32 


University  Press :  John  Wilson  &  Son,  Cambridge. 


MR,  MALE'S  BOY  BOOKS. 


STORIES  OF  WAR, 

Told  by  Soldiers. 

STORIES  OF  THE  SEA, 

Told  by  Sailors. 

STORIES  OF  ADVENTURE, 

Told  by  Adventurers. 

STORIES  OF  DISCOVERY, 

Told  by  Discoverers. 

STORIES  OF  INVENTION, 

Told  by  Inventors. 


Collected  and  edited  by  EDWARD  E.  HALE.      i6mo, 
cloth,  black  and  gold.     Price,  $1.00  per  volume. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,   or  mailed,  post-paid,   on 
receipt  of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


EDWARD    E.    KALE'S    WRITINGS. 


TEN  TIMES   ONE  IS  TEN.     i6mo.    $1.00. 

CHRISTMAS  EVE  AND   CHRISTMAS   DAY:  Ten  Christ- 

mas  Stories.     With  Frontispiece  by  Darley.     i6mo.    $1.25. 
UPS   AND   DOWNS.     An  Every-day  Novel.     i6mo.     $1.501 
A   SUMMER  VACATION.    Paper  covers.     50  cents. 
IN   HIS   NAME.     Square  i8mo.    $1.00. 
OUR  NEW  CRUSADE.     Square  i8mo.    $1.00 
THE    MAN    WITHOUT    A    COUNTRY,  and   other  Tales. 

i6mo.    $1.25. 

THE  INGHAM   PAPERS.     i6mo.    $1.25. 
WORKINGMEN'S   HOMES.    Illustrated.     i6mo.    $1.00. 
HOW   TO  DO   IT.     i6mo.    $1.00. 
HIS   LEVEL  BEST.     i6mo.    $1.25. 
THE    GOOD    TIME   COMING;    or,  Our  New  Crusade.     A 

Temperance  Story.     Square  i8mo.    Paper  covers.     50  cents. 

GONE  TO   TEXAS  ;   or,  The  Wonderful  Adventures  of  a  Pull- 

man.     i6mo.    $1.00. 
CRUSOE  IN  NEW  YORK,  and  other  Stories.     i6mo.    $1.00. 

WHAT  CAREER?   or,  The  Choice  of  a  Vocation  and  the  Use 
of  Time.     i6mo.    $1.25. 

MRS.  MERRIAM'S   SCHOLARS.     A  Story  of  the  "  Original 

Ten."     i6mo.    $1.00. 
SEVEN    SPANISH    CITIES,  and  the  Way  to  Them.     i6mo. 

#1.25. 

For  .sale  by  all  Booksellers.     Mailed,  postpaid,  by  the 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


EDWARD  E.  MALE'S  WRITINGS. 

THE   GOOD  TIME  COMING;  or,  Our  New  Crusade. 

Square  i8mo.     Paper,- 50  cents;  cloth,  $1.00. 

"  It  has  all  the  characteristics  of  its  brilliant  author,  —  unflagging  en. 
tertainment,  helpfulness,  suggestive,  practical  hints,  and  a  contagious 
vitality  that  sets  one's  blood  tingling.  Whoever  has  read  '  Ten  Times 
One  is  Ten '  will  know  just  what  we  mean.  We  predict  that  the  new 
volume,  as  being  a  more  charming  story,  will  have  quite  as  great  a  parish 
of  readers.  The  gist  of  the  book  is  to  show  how  possible  it  is  for  the 
best  spirits  of  a  community,  through  wise  organization,  to  form  them- 
selves into  a  lever  by  means  of  which  the  whole  tone  of  the  social  status 
may  be  elevated,  and  the  good  and  highest  happiness  of  the  helpless 
many  be  attained  through  the  self-denying  exertions  of  the  powerful 
few.  —  Southern  Churchman. 

THE  INGHAM   PAPERS.    i6mo.    $1.2$. 

"  But  it  is  not  alone  for  their  wit  and  ingenuity  we  prize  Mr.  Kale's 
stories,  but  for  the  serious  thought,  the  moral,  or  practical  suggestion 
underlying  all  of  them.  They  are  not  written  simply  to  amuse,  but  have 
a  graver  purpose.  Of  the  stories  in  the  present  volume,  the  best  to  ouf 
thinking  is  '  The  Rag  Man  and  Rag  Woman.'  "  —  Boston  Transcript. 

HOW  TO   DO  IT.    i6mo.    $1.00. 

"  Good  sense,  very  practical  suggestions,  telling  illustrations  (in  words), 
lively  fancy,  and  delightful  humor  combine  to  make  Mr.  Hale's  hints 
exceedingly  taking  and  stimulating,  and  we  do  not  see  how  either  sex 
can  fail,  after  reading  his  pages,  to  know  How  to  Talk,  How  to  Write, 
How  to  Read,  How  to  go  into  Society,  and  How  to  Travel.  These,  with 
Life  at  School,  Life  in  Vacation,  Life  Alone,  Habits  in  Church,  Life 
with  Children,  Life  with  your  Elders,  Habits  of  Reading,  and  Getting 
Ready,  are  the  several  topics  of  the  more  than  as  many  chapters,  and 
make  the  volume  one  which  should  find  its  way  to  the  hands  of  every 
boy  and  girl.  To  this  end  we  would  like  to  see  it  in  every  Sabbath-school 
library  in  the  land."  —  CongrtgatiottaKtt* 

CRUSOE  IN   NEW  YORK,  and  other  Stories.    i6mo. 

$1.00. 

"If  one  desires  something  unique,  full  of  wit,  a  veiled  sarcasm  that 
is  rich  in  the  extreme,  it  will  all  be  found  in  this  charming  little  book. 
The  air  of  perfect  sincerity  with  which  they  are  told,  the  diction,  re- 
minding one  of  'The  Vicar  of  Wakefield,'  and  the  ludicrous  improbabil- 
ity of  the  tales,  give  them  a  power  rarely  met  with  in  '  short  stories.* 
There  is  many  a  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  quiet  little  volume." 


Sold  everywhere,     Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price,  by  thl 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


EDWARD  E.  MALE'S   WRITINGS. 


THE  MAN  WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY,  and  other 
Tales.  i6mo.  $1.25. 

"A  collection  of  those  strange,  amusing,  and  fascinating  stones,  which, 
in  their  simplicity  of  narrative,  minute  detail,  allusion  to  passing  occur- 
rences, and  thorough  naturalness,  make  us  almost  feel  that  the  differ- 
ence between  truth  and  fiction  is  not  worth  mentioning.  Mr.  Hale  is  the 
prince  of  story-tellers ;  and  the  marvel  is  that  his  practical  brain  can  have 
such  a  vein  of  frolicsome  fancy  and  quaint  humor  running  through  it.  It 
will  pay  any  one  to  think  while  reading  these."  —  Universalist  Quarterly- 

WORKINGMEN'S  HOMES.  Illustrated.  i6mo.  £1.00. 
"Mr.  Hale  has  a  concern,  as  the  Friends  say,  that  laboring  men  should 
have  better  homes  than  they  usually  find  in  the  great  cities.  He  believes 
all  the  great  charities  of  the  cities  fail  to  overtake  their  task,  because  the 
working  men  are  always  slipping  down  to  lower  degrees  of  discomfort, 
unhealthiness,  and  vice  by  the  depressing  influences  surrounding  their 
iiomes.  He  writes  racily  and  earnestly,  and  with  rare  literary  excellence." 
—  Presbyterian. 

TEN  TIMES  ONE  IS  TEN  :  The  Possible  Reforma- 
tion. A  new  edition,  in  two  parts.  Part  I.  The  Story.  Part 
II.  Harry  Wadsworth  and  Wadsworth  Clubs.  i6mo.  $1.00. 

HARRY  WADSWORTH'S  MOTTO. 
"  To  look  up  and  not  down ;  To  look  out  and  not  in ;  and 

To  look  forward  and  not  back ;          To  lend  a  hand. 
"The  four  rules  are  over  my  writing-desk  and  in  my  heart.     Everj 
school  boy  and  girl  of  age  to  understand  it  should  have  this  story,  and,  U 
I  was  rich  enough,  should  have  it."  — Extract  from  a  letter  by  an  un* 
known  correspondent. 

MRS.    MERRIAM'S   SCHOLARS.     A  Story  of  th< 
"  Original  Ten."     i6mo.     $1.00. 

"  It  is  almost  inevitable  that  such  a  book  as  '  Ten  Times  One  is  Ten  ' 
should  suggest  others  in  the  same  line  of  thought ;  and  Mr.  Hale  begins 
in  'Mrs.  Merriam's  Scholars'  to  take  up  a  few  of  what  he  terms  the 
'  dropped  stitches '  of  the  narrative.  The  story  is  exceedingly  simple,  sc 
far  as  concerns  its  essentials,  and  carries  the  reader  forward  with  an  inter- 
est  in  its  motive  which  Mr.  Hale  seldom  fails  to  impart  to  his  writings. 
.  .  .  The  two  already  published  should  be  in  every  Sunday-school  library, 
and,  indeed,  wherever  they  will  be  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  apprecia« 
tive  readers." 

Sold  everywhere.    Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  jrice,  by  th 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


EDWARD  £  MALE'S  WRITINGS. 


HIS   LEVEL  BEST.    i6mo.    £1.25. 

"  We  like  Mr.  Kale's  style.  He  is  fresh,  frank,  pungent,  straight- 
forward, and  pointed.  The  first  story  is  the  one  that  gives  the  book  its 
title,  and  it  is  related  in  a  dignified  manner,  showing  peculiar  genius  and 
humorous  talent.  The  contents  are,  '  His  Level  Best,'  'The  Brick 
Moon,'  '  Water  Talk,'  '  Mouse  and  Lion,'  '  The  Modern  Sinbad/ 
4  A  Tale  of  a  Salamander.'"  —  Philadelphia,  Exchange. 

GONE  TO   TEXAS;  or,  The  Wonderful  Adventures  of  a 

Pullman.     i6mo.     $1.00. 

"  There  are  few  books  of  travel  which  combine  in  a  romance  of  true  love 
so  many  touches  of  the  real  life  of  many  people,  in  glimpses  of  happy 
homes,  in  pictures  of  scenery  and  sunset,  as  the  beautiful  panorama  un- 
rolled before  us  from  the  windows  of  this  Pullman  car.  The  book  is 
crisp  and  bright,  and  has  a  pleasant  flavor ;  and  whatever  is  lovely  in  the 
spirit  of  its  author,  or  of  good  report  in  his  name,  one  may  look  here  and 
find  promise  of  both  fulfilled."— Exchange, 

WHAT   CAREER?  or,  The  Choice  of  a  Vocation  and  the 
Use  of  Time.     i6mo.     #1.25. 

'"  What  Career?  '  is  a  book  which  will  do  anybody  good  to  read  ;  es- 
pecially is  it  a  profitable  book  for  young  men  to  '  read,  mark,  and  in- 
wardly digest.'  Mr  Hale  seems  to  know  what  young  men  need,  and 
here  he  gives  them  the  result  of  his  large  experience  and  careful  obser- 
vation. A  list  of  the  subjects  treated  in  this  little  volume  will  sufficiently 
indicate  its  scope:  (i)  The  Leaders  Lead  ;  (2}  The  Specialties;  (3)  No- 
blesse Oblige  ;  (4)  The  Mind's  Maximum  ;  (5)  A  Theological  Seminary ; 
(6)  Character ;  (7)  Responsibilities  of  Young  Men ;  (8)  Study  Outside 
School;  (9)  The  Training  of  Men  ;  (10)  Exercise."—  Watchman. 

UPS    AND    DOWNS.       An    Every-Day   Novel.     i6mo. 

#1.50. 

"  This  book  is  certainly  very  enjoyable.  It  delineates  American  life  so 
graphically  that  we  feel  as  if  Mr.  Hale  must  have  seen  every  rood  of 
ground  he  describes,  and  must  have  known  personally  every  character 
he  so  cleverly  depicts.  In  his  hearty  fellowship  with  young  people  lies 
his  great  power.  The  story  is  permeated  with  a  spirit  of  glad-heartedness 
and  elasticity  which  in  this  hurried,  anxious,  money-making  age  it  is  most 
refreshing  to  meet  with  in  any  one  out  of  his  teens  ;  and  the  author's  sym- 
pathy with,  and  respect  for,  the  little  romances  of  his  young  friends  is 
most  fraternal."  —  New  Church  Magazine. 


Sold  everywhere.    Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  Price,  by  tht 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


EDWARD  £  MALE'S   WRITINGS. 


SEVEN  SPANISH  CITIES,  and  the  Way  to  Them. 
i6mo.  #1.25. 

"The  Rev.  E.  E.  Male's  'Spanish  Cities'  is  in  the  author's  most 
lively  style,  full  of  fun,  with  touches  of  romance,  glimpses  of  history,  allu- 
sions to  Oriental  literature,  earnest  talk  about  religion,  consideration  of 
Spanish  politics,  and  a  rapid,  running  description  of  everything  that 
observant  eyes  could  possibly  see.  Mr.  Hale  makes  Spain  more  attrac- 
tive and  more  amusing  than  any  other  traveller  has  done,  and  he  lavishes 
upon  her  epigram  and  wit."  —  Boston  Advertiser. 

CHRISTMAS    EVE    AND  'CHRISTMAS    DAY. 

Ten  Stories.     i6mo.    #1.25. 

"  Many  an  eye  has  moistened,  and  many  a  heart  grown  kindlier  with 
Christmas  thoughts  over  'Daily  Bread.'  and  some  of  the  lesser  stars 
which  now  shine  in  the  same  galaxy;  and  the  volume  which  contains 
them  will  carry  on  their  humane  ministry  to  many  a  future  Christmas 
time."  —  Christian  Register. 

IN  HIS  NAME.  A  Story  of  the  Waldenses,  Seven  Hun- 
dred  Years  ago.  Square  i8mo.  Paper,  30  cents ;  cloth,  $1.00. 

"  A  touching,  almost  a  thrilling,  tale  is  this  by  E.  E.  Hale,  in  its  pa- 
thetic simplicity  and  its  deep  meaning.  It  is  a  story  of  the  Waldenses 
in  the  days  when  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  and  his  splendid  following 
wended  their  way  to  the  Crusades,  and  when  the  name  of  Christ  in- 
spired men  who  dwelt  in  palaces,  and  men  who  sheltered  themselves  in 
the  forests  of  France.  'In  his  Name' was  the  'Open  Sesame'  to  the 
hearts  of  such  as  these,  and  it  is  to  illustrate  the  power  of  this  almost 
magical  phrase  that  the  story  is  written.  That  it  is  charmingly  written, 
follows  from  its  authorship.  There  is  in  fact  no  little  book  that  we  have 
seen  of  late  that  offers  so  much  of  so  pleasant  reading  in  such  little  space, 
and  conveys  so  apt  and  pertinent  a  lesson  of  pure  religion."  —  N.  Y. 
Commercial  A  dvertiser. 

"  The  very  loveliest  Christmas  story  ever  written.  It  has  the  ring  of  an 
old  Troubadour  in  it." 

A  SUMMER  VACATION.    i6mo.    50  cents. 

"  After  Mr.  Hale's  return  from  Europe  he  preached  to  his  people  four 
sermons  concerning  his  European  experience.  At  the  request  of  '  some 
who  heard  them,'  Mr.  Hale  has  allowed  these  sermons  to  be  published 
with  this  title.  They  are  full  of  vigorous  thought,  wide  philanthropy, 
and  practical  suggestions,  and  will  be  read  with  interest  by  all  classes.  — 
Boston  Transcript. 

Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  pricey  by  the 
Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  BOSTON. 


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